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http://www.archive.org/details/bookbinderstheirOOpridrich
Of this book there have been
printed Jive hundred copies, of
ivhich this is
No.
BOOKBINDERS
AND THEIR CRAFT
BOOKBINDERS
AND THEIR CRAFT,
By S. T. PRIDEAUX
W
AUTHOR OF " AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BOOKBINDING"
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1903
*
Copyright, 1903, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
for United States of America
Published, April, 1903
C C c l
( < < I I
C C I c c t c
Printed by The Gilliss Press
New York, U. S. A.
PREFACE
F the papers collected in this
volume, those on " Roger
Payne " and " English and
Scottish Bindings of the Last
Century " were written for
the "Magazine of Art," and are here re-
printed by the courtesy of Messrs. Cassell.
The notice of M. Thoinan's important book
was contributed to " Bibliographica," and is
included by the kind permission of Messrs.
Kegan Paul and Co. All the rest appeared
either in " Scribner's Magazine " or " The
Bookbuyer," except the second paper on
"Early Italian Bindings," which is now added
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
in order to complete the outline of the subject.
They are practically issued as they were first
written, with the drawbacks and limitations
of the restricted magazine article: for to
have attempted much alteration would have
deprived them of their original character.
There are fresh illustrations to the paper on
"Design in Bookbinding/' some additional
plates of early Italian and stamped bindings,
and others in "Notes on Pattern-Making"
showing modern applications of Oriental
motives.
I am indebted to Miss M. A. Bell for her
help with the designs in this paper, which
has enabled me to give greater variety to
the series of plates in illustration of the
points under discussion.
I must express my very grateful acknow-
ledgment to Mr. W. Y. Fletcher for his aid
so willingly rendered in the revision of the
proofs.
PREFACE
It only remains for me to thank Messrs.
Scribner for their initiative in the matter
of this reprint, and to express a hope that
the increasing interest in binding shown in
America will justify its issue.
S. T. P.
/
CONTENTS
PAGE
I Some English and Scottish Bind-
ings of the Last Century - i
II Characteristics and Peculiarities
of Roger Payne, Binder - - 27
III "Les Relieurs Fran9ais" 57
IV Design in Bookbinding 79
V Some French Binders of To-day 109
VI Early Stamped Bindings - - - 163
VII Early Italian Bindings - - - 211
VIII Some Notes on Pattern-making 267
SOME ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
OF THE LAST CENTURY
I
SOME ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
OF THE LAST CENTURY
T seems worth while, with the
increased interest in bind-
ings, to call attention to two
types that have not hitherto
met with the recognition
they deserve : these are the Scottish bindings
of — roughly speaking — the early eighteenth
century, and the English inlaid work of about
the same date, but earlier. Although coupled
together for the purpose of treatment in this
article, they bear no resemblance to each
other, and are, in fact, two perfectly distinct
styles.
Unfortunately the obscurity that prevails,
with very few exceptions, with regard to
e c>.c V* * ' c
c e « <f , ■
« EOdKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
the whole history of binding as a craft, exists
also at this period. All one can do under
the circumstance is to direct the attention
of the public interested in the subject to cer-
tain types of design thrown into shadow
hitherto by the more prominent ones, in the
hope that by study of individual specimens
something of the genius and development of
ornament, as applied to binding, may be dis-
covered, and perhaps, by the way, something
also of the binder and of the conditions under
which he worked. This, it is hoped, may
prove sufficient excuse for this paper, which
certainly lacks the historic interest attached
to bindings done for French princes and
great collectors.
The readers of such literature of binding
as exists must surely be somewhat wearied
by the limitation of treatment to Grolier and
Maioli, Le Gascon, the Eves, and Derome,
with an occasional mention of Mearne and
Roger Payne as the only English binders
worthy of consideration. " Les Relieurs
Fran5ais, 1560— 1800," by Ernest Thoinan
4
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
contains nearly all that is likely to be known
of binding, as the art was pursued and cultiv-
BIBLE WITH INLAID BINDING
ated in France. It certainly contains the result
of the most recent and elaborate researches
among the archives of the Bibliotheque
Nationale, and though we may not always
5
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
agree with the conclusions of the author on
certain long disputed points, the interest of
his material is not affected by his deduc-
tions. For information as to the early his-
tory of the Guild of Binders and Gilders in
Paris, its connection with the University, and
its statutes, the account given by M. Thoi-
nan is the only one. It is followed by a short
history of the different ornamental styles
through which the art passed, and concludes
with a biographical notice of all the French
binders. Far more information is therein con-
tained than has ever been put together before,
including much entirely unknown hitherto to
the English reader. With the appearance
of this work we may hope that those who
want to discuss binding will give up the repe-
tition of platitudes about the great French
craftsmen, and devote themselves more to see-
ing what can be discovered in our own
country. I am ready to admit that the art
never attained over here anything like the per-
fection it did abroad ; that not only the same
technical mastery has never been forthcom-
6
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
ing, but that also the inventiveness to pro-
duce a national style has not as yet arisen. For
long periods we were content to assimilate
the designs of our neighbours as they arose
one after the other ; hardly, indeed, to assim-
ilate, rather to reproduce them for our own
needs, and that for the most part slavishly,
and with no new elements.
But every now and again we come across
some volume that shows on the part of the
workman a distinct effort to get rid of imi-
tation and attempt a new style. A dis-
covery of this sort should be followed up by
careful observation in any library there may
be at hand of books of the same date or
place of publication ; and in this way we
may, perhaps, one day attain to something
like a connected account of the art in our
own country.
The two types that claim attention in
this paper have hardly been realized as yet,
and there is but little information to be
given about them. We may, perhaps, dis-
miss the English one first as offering even
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
less material for information than the Scot-
tish, and presenting less variety in the indi-
BIBLE WITH INLAID BINDING
vidual specimens. It is also earlier in date.
All we really know about this English inlaid
work, of which two examples are here re-
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
produced, is that it is to be found on Bibles,
Prayer Books, and the like, at the end of
the seventeenth century and the beginning
A SCOTTISH BINDING IN BLUE MOROCCO
of the last century. The colour of the cover
is a dark-blue and the inlays are of red and
citron. Many of these books have also sil-
ver clasps, and corners delicately engraved
with some slight ornament of the period,
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and some have decorated edges — mostly a
flower painted underneath the gold. The
tools used for the decoration are many of
them in outline, bordering an inlay of
the same shape, generally a conventional
flower. The parts inlaid, besides these small
flowers, are, generally speaking, the corners
and centre of a panel, upon which are
worked very freely, and without regard to
neatness of joining, certain well recognized
ornaments that formed the stock-in-trade of
the ordinary binder of the time. The tool-
ing is rough, and the beauty of the book
depends more on the general effect of col-
our and the massing of design than on the
execution of the pattern itself.
Nevertheless, the sprays that fill up the
spaces between the inlays are often extremely
graceful, and the details composing them
are very delicate, the tools being well de-
signed and finely cut.
Altogether, these bindings have a great
attractiveness, perhaps the greater for their
want of elaborate finish. They are happily
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
inspired, and most distinctly national, which
is a point well worthy of emphasis. The
larger of the two illustrations is that of a
Bible in the possession of Mr. C. E. H.
Chadwyck Healy, printed at Cambridge in
1673. It is a large quarto, in excellent pre-
servation, having the painted edges before
mentioned, and silver clasps and corners.
The other is also a Bible, printed at Lon-
don in 1673, and bought by Mr. Quaritch
from the library of the late Mr. Lawrence.
Of course all the beauty of colour is lost in
the illustrations, and for that reason it is
not worth while to give more than two
reproductions. The number of these books
to be met with is not very large, but many
a family that dates back a couple of hun-
dred years probably has some one among its
treasures, kept with the fans and laces, the
charms, and chatelaines, and knicknacks of
its feminine ancestors. One such I lately
came across almost unknown to its posses-
sor, in which were entered, after the do-
mestic custom of that day, the names and
i]
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
dates of all the family for years in quaint
old phraseology that added greatly to the
interest of what was one of the best speci-
mens of this kind of binding. It was a
type that was probably in the hands of only
a few binders, and very likely almost re-
served for the Bibles and Prayer Books that
formed gift books.
It is not until the last part of the seven-
teenth century that we find any important
bindings obviously of Scottish workman-
ship. The annals of Scottish printing are
searched in vain for any record of binders.
Printing progressed but slowly in the coun-
try. The first press was established in 1507
by patent of King James IV, granted to two
citizens of the town of Edinburgh named
Walter Chepman and Andrew Myllar.
There is little doubt that it was introduced
from France, Myllar having at one time
been a bookseller importing books from
abroad, and having apparently some practi-
cal knowledge of printing obtained on the
Continent.
12
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
The license begins in the following
quaint way : " Wit ye that foisamekill as
A SCOTTISH BINDING IN RED MOROCCO
our lovittis servitous Walter Chepman
and Andrew Myllar burgesses of our burgh
of Edinburgh, has at our instance and re-
13
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
quest, for our plesour, the honour and proffit
of our Realme and Liegis, takin on thame
to furnis and bring hame ane prent, with
all stuff belangand tharto and expert men to
use the sayme for imprenting within our
Realme of the bukis of our Lawis, actis of
Parliament croniclis, mess bukis," etc., etc.
These adventurous citizens are further guar-
anteed from loss by a monopoly of printing
certain books, and last, but by no means
least, among such books the liturgical works
of William, Bishop of Aberdeen. Indeed, it
is thought by some that the object and ori-
gin of the introduction of printing to Scot-
land was not so much to procure printed
books as to enable this bishop, who had
great influence over the king, to exclude
the books of Salisbury use, and impose his
own breviary, called the Aberdeen breviary,
upon the people.
There is no doubt that the " prent and
expert men" were imported from France,
as this has been decided from the similarity
of the type and wood blocks used by Myllar
14
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
with those in French books of the period.
The division of the partnership has been
made obvious from the documents of the
time. Chepman was a general merchant
who undertook miscellaneous commercial
transactions, and was in favour both with
James IV and James V. The idea of the
new venture was probably suggested by him
as well as financed by his money, and
Myllar, as more or less of an expert versed
in the craft, undertook the practical leader-
ship of the concern.
I have said that the French origin of the
Scottish development has been proved from
the likeness between the woodcuts used there
and those in contemporary use on the Con-
tinent. Chepman, like most of the early
printers, had a device, and this was in fact a
modification of the one known to lovers of
early-printed books as that of Pigouchet.
Myllar's was a capital example of the pun-
ning or parlant stamp. A miller carries a
sack of corn on his back up a ladder to the
windmill ; the stem of the mill supports a
*5
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
shield with the monogram, while the name
is in bold Gothic letters along the bottom
A SCOTTISH BINDING IN BLUE MOROCCO
of the device. Two small shields at the
top corners are charged with three fleurs-
de-lys. Many examples of these punning
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
stamps may be found on early French bind-
ings, when books were bound in brown leath-
er and impressed by a block without gold.
But the interesting point about this parti-
cular device of Myllar's is that, though
there is no printed book extant by him
which has it impressed on the binding, there
are two book-covers in the Douce collec-
tion of the Bodleian Library at Oxford,
which have the same device with the name
of Jehan Moulin. There are several exam-
ples of Moulin binding in existence, and his
stamp is one of the finest and most decora-
tive of the kind.
It was natural that certain of these devices,
or parts of them, should appear in stamps on
the leather covers in which books from the
early presses were mostly issued. The print-
ing, binding and bookselling departments
were not unusually combined in one, so that
it frequently happened that the trade-mark
was impressed as a panel stamp as above de-
scribed. The French panel stamps far ex-
celled all others in beauty as well as fre-
17
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
quency, and a collection of them would go
a long way to show the especial recognition
of the French of the appropriate use of or-
nament to book-covers, and its adaptation to
the limited space which they had to decor-
ate.
It is, however, in vain that we look for
any such distinctive marks of the binder in
Scotland, even at the early period when
signed bindings were not infrequent abroad.
The whole period is destitute of any record.
Some indication may be found occasionally
from very unexpected sources, and it is to
be hoped that now attention has been
directed to the matter, such sources as the
one I am about to mention may prove more
fruitful of results in the future. There is a
tombstone in Elgin Cathedral of William
Lyel, " subdicanus ecclesie moraviensis,,,
who died in 1504. The stone is long and
narrow, having a cross in the centre, a cup
on one side of the stem of the cross, and a
book in the corresponding space to the right.
The inscription runs in a border all round,
18
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
and is to this effect : " Hie jacet venerabilis
vir magister vilelmus lyel quonda subdecanus
SCOTCH BINDING IN BLUE MOROCCO
ecclesie moravien. q. obiit — die mes — Anno
diii Mcc'ccc. iiiv." A rubbing of the book
shows that it probably represents a fine
binding of the time, and the design con-
19
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
sists of a diaper of diamond-shaped lozenges
set between a heavy three-lined border, and
on the fore-edge is a clasp. The rubbing
measures 10^ inches by 6 inches.
The early Italian pictures, with their Ma-
donnas and Apostles, who frequently hold in
their hands some rare and costly missal, give
us not infrequently a very clear idea of the
contemporary bindings, jeweled and other-
wise enriched, which were placed at the ser-
vice of the Church and mostly executed
within conventual walls. In the same way
it is not impossible that from time to time
the student of Scottish archaeology may come
upon some instances of the applied arts
which will prove important for the early
history of Scottish binding.
As for the written records, if not quite so
scanty, they are not any more instructive.
The following specimens of what we get in
this way are indicative of all the documen-
tary evidence that is to be had up to this
date. In 1539 the King's treasurer pays
David Chepman, son of Walter, the printer,
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
ten shilllings Scots, " for binding and laying
about with gold the queen's matin buke."
In the accounts of Aberdeen University we
find : " Item to James Miller, bookbinder,
for binding for Mr. Jon Paterson Mr. John
Meingyes Sermons aforesaid, 441b. 2s.' '
And again — " Item to Peter Thomson for
cutting 7m, being 3 quares, 6s."
It was not till the seventeenth century
that printing really spread to the provinces
of Scotland. Aberdeen did not receive a
press till 1622, when Edward Raban, an
Englishman by birth, came north to exe-
cute his craft, and after staying a short time
in Edinburgh, was made printer to the Uni-
versity of St. Andrews. He had a great
friendship with Melvill, the bookseller of
Aberdeen, for whom he printed, and in
1643 Raban is mentioned as having a book-
selling as well as a printing business. Now
Melvill died in that same year, and it is
probable that the bookselling shop was
Melvill's business that Raban took over on his
death. One would like to discover some
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
bindings that emanated from this well-au-
thenticated bookshop. It is possible that the
libraries of Scotland^the University Li-
brary at Glasgow that contains the Hunter-
ian collection; the Edinburgh University
Library, to which the entire collection of
Drummond of Hawthornden was bequeathed;
the Advocate's Library, and the Signet Li-
brary in the same town, may contain much
that is valuable in this and other directions.
The more remote collections, too, not yet
explored, from this point of view, may some
day yield unexpected treasures. But such
researches as have come within my power
have not resulted in the identification of
any ornate Scotch binding earlier than the
last quarter of the seventeenth century.
Since the dispersal of the private libraries
of Dr. Laing, Mr. Whiteford Mackenzie,
Mr. James Maidment, and the late Sir W.
Fettes Douglas, who is said to have had a
fine collection of old Scotch bindings, it is
not likely that any considerable number are
to be found in a single owner's possession.
22
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
A SCOTTISH BINDING IN RED MOROCCO
There were several interesting examples
exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club,
three of which are figured in their illustrated
catalogue.
I think I can trace two fairly distinct
types of Scotch binding during the eigh-
teenth century. The examples here given
are all from Edinburgh printed books, and
23
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
with one exception are all in the library of
the British Museum ; and both types appear
to be fairly contemporaneous, though I shall
begin with the one that seems to be the
earlier of the two, as it is found on the one
book having a date of the previous century.
This is the " Parfait Mareschal or Compleat
Farrier," printed at Edinburgh in 1696. It
is a fine specimen of a small folio measur-
ing 1 2 inches by 7^ inches, bound in dark
blue morocco, and has a red doublure. It
will be seen from the illustration that the
design is put together most ingeniously.
The weak part is the framework of the cen-
tre panel, which is made by means of a
wide ornamental roll worked roughly enough
at the angles. The spaces marked out by
gouges which border the panel inside and
out, and likewise the sides of the covers are
very effectively filled in with dots, and the
branch work in the centre and at the cor-
ners is decidedly graceful. The design is,
on the whole, well conceived with the ex-
ception above mentioned, and the general
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BINDINGS
effect is well-balanced and satisfying to the
eye.
The second example is also a small folio
in red morocco, a " History of the Suffer-
ings of the Church of Scotland from the
Restoration to the Revolution," printed at
Edinburgh in 1722. The third is a "His-
tory of the Church under the Old Testa-
ment," Edinburgh, 1730, a folio in blue
morocco. The fourth is a Psalter belong-
ing to Mr. John Wordie of Glasgow, an oc-
tavo in blue morocco, which was the colour
most used at that period.
These four specimens are all different, but
have at the same time a marked similarity
that proves conclusively, I think, that there
was a distinct type of Scottish binding dur-
ing this period.
The other type is one that has always in
the centre a circular ornament with radiating
lines, and at the angles conventional branch
work, consisting mostly, of palm sprays.
The examples of Scotch binding exhi-
bited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club were
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
of this character, the best specimen being
the " Disputatio Juridica," Edinburgh, 1730,
4to, a presentation copy to Lord Lauderdale,
to whom the " Disputatio " is dedicated.
This book was lent by Mr. R. T. Hamilton
Bruce, and is figured in the catalogue.
The specimen here given is not a very in-
teresting one, but presents clearly enough
the type in all its features. The book is
entitled " Eloge de la ville d'Edinbourg di-
vise en quatre chants par le sieur de Forbes,"
a Edinbourg, 1752, i2mo. It is bound in
red morocco, and, like all the others re-
presented, has that German embossed gilt
paper for "end papers" which came over
here in the early part of the eighteenth
century.
CHARACTERISTICS AND PECULIARITIES
OF
ROGER PAYNE, BINDER
II
CHARACTERISTICS AND PECULIARITIES
OF ROGER PAYNE, BINDER
T the outset of this account of
Roger Payne and his bind-
ings, I want to state my obj ect
in drawing attention to him
at this moment, and to em-
phasize the special interest that I consider his
work to have. Most people who care suffi-
ciently for bookbinding to know anything
of Roger Payne are probably a little tired
by this time of the story of his eccentric in-
dividuality, his verses in praise of drink, and
the quaint elaborateness of his bills, all of
which, ever since the days of Dibdin, have
been mentioned as the main points of inter-
est connected with his history. But to my
29
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
mind the chief thing that dissociates him
from other members of his craft — with the
exception of his style of ornamentation, which
was very original — is that he did the whole
of his work himself, and I know of no other
binder of whom this can be said.
People who are even but slightly acquainted
with the work of a binder's shop know that
it is divided into three main departments —
that books are sewn and headbanded by wo-
men, put into boards, cut and covered by the
"forwarder," and ornamented by the "fin-
isher." The result is that personality in the
work is lost. There may be a certain sim-
ilarity of appearance in the books turned out
by a special binder, because one or more
styles will generally prevail in any given
shop, but of individuality in the get-up of
the several books there is none. Nor can
this possibly be made a matter of reproach
in the ordinary run of work ; prices would
not admit of its being done on any other
principle than that of subdivision of labour.
But the fact remains that a book carried out
30
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
" LE FACECIEUX
from beginning to end by a craftsman intel-
ligently interested in his trade, wholly re-
sponsible for the success of his work, and
with sufficient artistic feeling to make the
commercial point of view a secondary one,
31
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
will have a personal character about it that
one which has passed through many hands
will never acquire.
It is to the character in Roger Payne's
work that I want to direct the attention of
lovers of binding. Not that this can possi-
bly be conveyed by illustrations — those will
give the ornamental detail, but little else. I
doubt, however, if anyone who takes half a
dozen of Roger Payne's bindings and puts
them side by side with a similar number of
books bound by the best French and English
binders, will be long in feeling that, though
they may be lacking in technical finish, they
have yet an individuality all their own.
Before proceeding to a detailed apprecia-
tion of his work, a brief sketch of Payne's
life may be given. He was born in Wind-
sor Forest in 1739, and was first employed
by Pote, the well-known Eton bookseller.
He then went to London, and served a short
time with Thomas Osborne, an antiquarian
bookseller in Gray's Inn. Dibdin says Tom
Osborne was the most celebrated bookseller
32
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
of his day, and carried on a successful trade
from the year 1738 to 1768. He appears at all
IN THE COLLECTION OF ALFRED HUTH, ESCL-
events to have purchased the libraries of the
most eminent collectors of the time, for he
gave ^13,000 for the Harleian collection,
33
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and employed Dr. Johnson to write the Pre-
face to an account of it published in four
volumes and entitled " Catalogus Bibliothecae
Harleianae," etc. Osborne was so rough and
overbearing in his manners that Boswell de-
clares Johnson once knocked him down with
a folio and put his foot upon his neck. He
was evidently not popular, being a great con-
trast in this respect to his contemporary,
" honest Tom Payne," of whom T. G.
Mathias speaks so appreciatively in the " Pur-
suits of Literature." Anyway he had not the
wit to know Roger Payne for a genius, or if
he had the wit he had not the temper to keep
him in his employment. They could not
agree, and Roger then made the acquaintance
of his namesake above-mentioned — Thomas
Payne, the popular leading bookseller of the
time, whose shop in the shape of an I at
the Mews Gate was a sort of literary coffee-
house between 1750 and 1790. His brother
Oliver, with whom he started in business, is
said to have originated the idea and practice
of printing catalogues. Thomas was much
34
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
respected by all the authors and book-collect-
ors of his time, and is thus described in Nich-
ols's " Literary Anecdotes " : " Warm in his
friendships as in his politicks, a convivial,
cheerful companion, and unalterable in the
cut and colour of his coat, he uniformly pur-
sued one great object, fair dealing, and will
survive in the list of booksellers the most
eminent for being adventurous and scientific,
by the name of honest Tom Payne." His
lasting friendship with Roger is not the least
of the tributes to his kindness and generosity.
He set him up in business near Leicester
Square somewhere between 1766 and 1770.
The portrait which Thomas Payne had
made of Roger for himself — it is said after
his death — shows him in this garret, where
he lived and worked. " His appearance,"
said Dibdin, "bespoke either squalid wretch-
edness or a foolish and fierce indifference to
the received opinions of mankind. His
hair was unkempt, his attire wretched ; and
the interior of his workshop — where, like
the Turk, he would ' bear no brother near
35
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
his throne ' — harmonized but too justly with
the general character of its owner. With
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. CRACHERODE BEQUEST
the greatest possible display of humility he
quite united the spirit of quixotic indepen-
36
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
dence. Such a compound — such a motley
union — was probably never before concen-
trated in one and the same individual."
Richard Weir, whose wife attained a great
reputation in the mending and restoration
of books, was his partner toward the end of
his life. Mr. and Mrs. Weir had succeeded
Derome in 1774 in binding and repairing
the library of Count Macarthy at Tou-
louse, and on their return to England joined
Paine, but both men being intemperate, the
business rapidly deteriorated, until they were
finally taken into the employment of John
Mackinlay, the binder.
The most important event in Payne's
life was undoubtedly his introduction to
Lord Spencer. How this came about we
do not know exactly, but it was most prob-
ably through his friend and namesake the
bookseller. Dibdin relates that the Coun-
tess Spencer's lady's maid remarked on see-
ing Payne, whose first visit to the Earl was
made apparently while they were dressing
for court : " Oh Dieu ! mais, comment
37
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
done, est-ce que e'est ainsi qu' on se presente
dans ce pays-ci dans un cabinet de toilette ?"
This was the beginning of much work for
the Althorp Library; and other well-known
patrons were Dr. Moseley, who is supposed
to have had some of his books bound in
return for medical advice, and Colonel Stan-
ley, for whom Payne did some excellent
specimens.
The leather that he worked in was red
or blue straight-grain morocco or a smooth
olive morocco, which he liked best, and
which he called " Venetian " in his bills,
probably from its similarity to the color
used by Aldus. Unfortunately for durabil-
ity, a good deal of his work was also done
in Russia leather. His choice of lining pa-
pers was a great blot on the appearance of
his books ; they were never marbled, but
plain coloured, chiefly purple or buff, which
harmonized ill with his leathers, and being
coarse of texture, they often became unpleas-
antly spotted.
His books were well stitched and head-
38
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
banded, and the criticism frequently passed
that he used too thin boards is not borne
out by an inspection of those in the British
Museum. He had a habit of lining the
backs with Russia leather, which, in the case
of the smaller size books, was very unfor-
tunate, for it prevented them from opening
freely. His leather joints were very clumsy,
and the joints of his books as a whole were
lacking in technical finish. Very few doub-
lures are to be found, and he had no taste for
the elaborateness of contemporary French
work. I have mentioned the main defects
of Payne's work; when we come to its dec-
oration we are at once struck by the origi-
nality displayed in the lay-out of the design
as compared with the work of previous
English binders, and the great taste shown
in the balance and adjustment of the detail.
Payne prided himself upon what he consid-
ered the appropriateness of his ornament,
but luckily its emblematic character does
not strike one at first sight ; that he should
put a design of vine leaves on one book
39
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
because its title was " Rusticum," or that
another should have a border of " antique
shields and crescents " because they were in
the headpiece to the preface of the book, is
not a use of emblems that anyone can quar-
rel with. His ornamentation was never
elaborate. His sides are often plain, una-
dorned but with a single line or with cor-
ners made of a few flowers and leaves, the
spaces between being filled with circles and
dots. When the sides are plain, the backs
are generally fully gilt, with a similar tra-
cery of leaves and flowers studded with dots,
stars and circlets. When the inside joints
and border are tooled the outside is mostly
left quite plain. In many cases the titles
are made to decorate more than one com-
partment of the back, the tooling occurring
only on the top and bottom spaces. This tool-
ing is very often without gold; indeed, Payne
was very fond of blind work, and many
specimens of it may be seen at the British
Museum. On blue and red moroccos it
was not effective, but on diced Russia
4o
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
f©^*
*&£**
-*&£&
$
^sl
**
.¥
^^(>
•srjys
*^
1
:#^r>
f
:*^
^*<>
^-/^
r*llr
•*^
&=&c»
P ^"^Ife
g»i
^pk
Mi
BIBLE, BOUND FOR TOM PAYNE
leather, and especially in combination with
a certain amount of gold, the effect is ex-
tremely pleasing.
He did not have very many tools, arid is
said to have himself made some of them in
41
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
iron — presumably the very simple ones, stars,
dots, and rings, which he had in great
variety, for some of the others are of such
delicacy that they indicate the practised hand
of the tool cutter. It may be said in pass-
ing that it is very likely the older binders
employed iron for their tools instead of the
soft brass now in use, and the French word
for them — "fers" — would seem to support
this view.
Many of Payne's flower-foliage tools were
decidedly original, though he may possibly
have been indebted to Mearne and the Eng-
lish binders of the end of the seventeenth
century and beginning of the eighteenth for
some of them. They are floral without being
naturalistic, sufficiently conventionalized for
design, and very simply arranged in the pat-
tern they compose. In fact, the special art-
istic feeling of his ornamentation consists in
the skilful way in which he made dots — or
"studded work," as he called it — strengthen
or balance the design so that the plan of
arrangement and the combination of the in-
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
|^H38S-^H^
-SSSHNM&
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. CRACHERODE BEQUEST
dividual tools does not catch the eye, and is
in fact hidden by the richness of the studded
effect. His ornamentation indeed, flowing
43
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and graceful as it is in stem and flower, of-
fers a striking contrast to the style that pre-
ceded it in England, known as the Harleian,
which was extremely stiff and formal, and
allowed of no appearance of growth or de-
velopment in the arrangement of its parts.
Somehow the light and graceful charac-
ter of his work seems especially suitable to
the straight-grain morocco then in fashion.
A " Roger Payne " style now forms one of
the commonplaces of the ordinary binder's
stock in trade, but carried out on the solid
levant morocco in fashion has nothing like
the same attractiveness. Payne wisely ad-
hered to the style that he practically in-
vented, and there are no examples of any at-
tempt to compete in the reproduction of old
models. There is not perhaps very much
scope in his designs, and yet the variation is
considerable considering the few tools he
employed. These he used in fresh com-
binations with great inventiveness and un-
failing taste, getting much richness of effect
by the simple device of dots. In fact, he
44
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
thoroughly understood the art of getting ef-
fect by simplicity rather than by elaboration
of ornament.
His career lasted between thirty and forty
years, beginning about 1770, during which
time, notwithstanding the irregularity of his
habits, he was very constantly successful.
He certainly met with great appreciation
during his lifetime, and had it not been for
his eccentric independence, he would un-
doubtedly have left behind him a more ex-
tensive and finer record of his skill. For
Lord Spencer he worked continuously, and
did many fine specimens for the Duke of
Hamilton, Mr. Wodhull, Mr. Cracherode,
Dr. Moseley, Colonel Stanley and other col-
lectors.
The Roger Payne bindings in the British
Museum nearly all belong to the collection
bequeathed to it by Mr. Clayton Mordaunt
Cracherode, who was born in 1730 and
died in 1799. He held the curacy of Bin-
sey, near Oxford, for a long time, but on
the death of his father in 1773 ^e inherited
45
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
a large fortune, and henceforth lived as a
recluse among his literary treasures. He had
no curiosity about anything else, and never
travelled except between London and Ox-
ford. In 1784 he was elected a Trustee of
the British Museum. Every day for many
years he walked to the shop of Elmsly, a
bookseller in the Strand, and thence to Tom
Payne's, and never returned without pur-
chases.
To return to Roger Payne. His chef
d'ceuvre is supposed to be the " /Eschylus "
done for Lord Spencer, and now available to
the public through the generosity of Mrs.
Rylands, of Manchester. Another very
elaborate and fine specimen of his work is a
copy of the Bible printed at Edinburgh in
171 5, and now in the possession of one of
the many New York collectors. It is fig-
ured in the little volume on Payne issued to
his friends by Mr. W. L. Andrews, of New
York, a great admirer of the binder. This
Bible has an additional interest as having
been bound for his friend and patron,
46
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
Thomas Payne, whose initials appear on the
sides. The original bill is inserted, in which
Roger says : " The outsides finished in the
richest and most elegant taste, richer and
more exact than any book that I have ever
bound." The charge for binding was £i
1 8s.; for mending and cleaning, 3s. 6d. — a
total of £2 is. 6d. It is bound in blue
morocco with a deep border and studded
corners, and has also a panel of graceful pro-
portions. The Grolier Club selected it for
reproduction for the covers of their first
publication, "The Decree of the Starre-
Chamber," the letters G. C. being substit-
uted for T. P. in the tracery on the sides.
Payne's bills, in which he describes with
quaint language and in great detail, his work
on the particular book, have always been
considered a curiosity. At the sale of Dr.
Moseley's library in 1 8 1 5 several of these
were found. Many of these bills have been
reproduced, but as a specimen I will take
one not hitherto published, except in the
little book by Mr. Andrews above men-
49
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
tioned. It was for binding a copy of Lilly's
" Christian Astrology/' now in the Library
of the Grolier Club :
u Bound in the very best manner, sewed in the very
best and most honest manner on Bands, outside. The
Book being very thick, it required the greater care in
sewing to make it easy and not fail.
" It is absolutely a very Extra Bound Book. I hope
to be forgiven in saying so and unmatchable. Velum
Headbands, so as not to break like paper rold up Head-
bands.
The greatest care and method taken
to make this Book as good a Copy
as my hands and experience of Work
was able to do the Binding in Russia
Quarto.
- us.
" Washing and taking out the Writing
Ink. Washed the whole Book.
" Cleaning it was very dirty and I am
certain took full 2 Days Work. The
Frontispiece was in a very indiffer-
ent Condition all the Writing Ink
is taken out of it amended and several
other places mended. The greatest
care hath been taken of the Margins.
Gilt.
6 6
- 6
Leaves not Cutt. £i. 3. 6."
Roger Payne died in December, 1797,
and the Gentleman s Magazine of that month
50
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
contains the following obituary notice of
him:
IN THE COLLECTION OF ALFRED HUTH, ESQ^.
" In Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane,
Mr. Roger Payne, the celebrated bookbinder,
whose death will be a subject of lasting re-
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
gret to the founders of magnificent libraries.
This ingenious man introduced a style of
binding uniting elegance with durability,
such as no person has ever been able to
imitate. He may be ranked indeed among
artists of the greatest merit. The orna-
ments he employed were chosen with a
classical taste, and, in many instances, ap-
propriated to the subject of the work or the
age and time of the author ; and each book
of his binding was accompanied by a writ-
ten description of the ornaments in a most
precise and curious style. His chef d'aeuvre
is his 'Aeschylus/ in the possession of Earl
Spencer, the ornaments and decorations of
which are most splendid and classical. The
binding of the book cost the noble Earl fif-
teen guineas. Those who are not accus-
tomed to see bookbinding executed in any
other than the common manner can have
no idea of the merits of the deceased, who
lived without a rival, and, we fear, has died
without a successor. His remains were
decently interred at St. Martin's-in-the-
5*
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
Fields at the expense of a respectable and
upright bookseller, resident in that parish,
to whom, in a great measure, the admirers
of this ingenious man's performances may
feel themselves indebted for the prolonga-
tion of his life; having for these last eight
years (with that goodness of heart for
which his family is distinguished) provided
him with a regular pecuniary assistance,
both for the support of his body and the
performance of his work.
" What adds to the credit of this is that
this poor man had not a proper command
of himself; for formerly, when in possession
of a few pounds, he would live jovially ;
when that was exhausted almost famishing.
It may be proper to remark that though his
name was spelt exactly as his patron's, he
was not related to him."
The estimate of Payne's talents contained
in this account is of course an exaggerated
one, though one cannot be surprised at it
when the work of his predecessors and con-
temporaries is taken into consideration. We
53
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. CRACHERODE BEQUEST
have spoken of the marked originality of
his designs, and this characteristic is an un-
deniable fact; there is, however, one class
of bindings with which they have a certain
though distant relationship — the English
54
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROGER PAYNE
and particularly the Scotch bindings of the
first part of the eighteenth century.
On his successors, of course, the influence
of Payne was very marked — that is to say,
in England. Charles Lewis is his best im-
itator, and many say that his work is indis-
tinguishable from that of Payne's except by
its freedom of forwarding and general
superiority of technique. This view, how-
ever, I cannot agree with; Lewis's best
work was certainly altogether superior in
finish, but it is not possible to mistake it
for Payne's, if for no other reason on ac-
count of just that individual character on
which I dwelt at the beginning, and which
results from the exclusive handling through-
out, in the main processes, of any work of
art by the same craftsman. There is a
striking similarity between Roger Payne's
style of decoration and that of one French-
man which has not apparently been noticed.
Bozerian le Jeune, as he was called in dis-
tinction to his brother, opened his workshop
about 1805, and in the Exhibition of Bind-
55
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ings held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club
in 1 89 1 there was shown a small volume,
" Hippocratis Coacae Praenotiones," in the
decoration of which the same traditions of
flower and leaf on a studded background
were closely followed. It is possible that
Bozerian copied Payne as English binding
was popular in France about that time.
The back of this little book, with the
panels thus ornamented, is reproduced in
the Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition.
LES RELIEURS FRANC^AIS
Ill
"LES RELIEURS FRAN^AIS"
BY E. THOINAN
ES Relieurs Franfais" 1500-
1800, by M.Ernest Thoinan,
is, on the whole, the most
important contribution to
the History of Binding that
has been made for many years. Before its
appearance, M. Gruel's " Manuel Historique
et Alphabetique " might fairly claim to that
position. It was, indeed, the first attempt
to put on anything like a scientific basis,
the information concerning binders and
their craft that is to be found scattered
up and down the many books about books
for which the French have always been
famous.
59
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
In France bibliographical gossip has ever
met with a ready reception, and the outsides
of books have proved almost as interesting as
their insides ; but the works are few in num-
ber that give the results of serious research
on the subject. When we have mentioned
M. Leroux de Lincy's "Jean Grolier,savieet
sa bibliotheque," M.Quentin BauchartV'Les
femmes bibliophiles de France, " and MM.
Marius-Michel's "La Reliure Francaise,"
we have named all before M. Gruel's book
that repay study.
M. Thoinan's work is of a very different
order to any of the above named, and is for
the most part based upon documentary evi-
dence contained in the records of the Guild
of Booksellers, with which the craft of Bind-
ers was incorporated up to the end of the
seventeenth century.
These documents were made use of both
by La Caille and Lottin, by the former in his
"Histoire deTImprimerie et de la Librairie,"
1689, and by the latter in his "Catalogue
chronologique des Libraires et des Libraires-
60
" LES RELIEURS FRAN£AIS
Imprimeurs de Paris," 1789. Neither of the
authors, however, being interested in bind-
ing, made any distinction between the two
trades, and the binder was confused with the
bookseller. The records in question are in
CRIEUR DE CONFRERIES
the Bibliotheque Nationale, but there are
also others in the Library of the Hotel Car-
navalet, which likewise contains the official
lists issued yearly throughout the eighteenth
century by the Binders and Gilders, after
they formed a corporation of their own.
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
With this groundwork M. Thoinan has
made an attempt, and a thoroughly success-
ful one, to take the history of binders and
binding out of the sphere of book-lovers' gos-
sip and unexplained hypotheses, and to confine
it to the facts for which there is undoubted
authority. What the subject henceforth loses
in romance it more than gains in historical
truth. In this notice we shall point out the
new ground which M. Thoinan's researches
have enabled him to cover, and the assump-
tions which, repeated without authority by
writer after writer, he at length firmly dis-
cards.
The book consists of three distinct parts :
an account of the corporation of the Book-
binders and Guilders of the city of Paris ;
a brief, but very comprehensive, study of the
different historical styles of binding, with
illustrative plates and descriptive notes ; and
a biographical section, arranged in alphabeti-
cal order. The first part gives a full and de-
tailed account of the history of the trade from
its earliest times, an account never attempted
62
"LES RELIEURS FRAN£AIS
succinctly before. Here we meet with much
fresh information, particularly in the chron-
icle of the vicissitudes the craft went through
before it attained to final independence at the
time of the Revolution.
From a very early date no one in Paris
could pursue any craft which had relation to
books without license from the University,
which exercised complete control, but on the
other hand obtained for this body of workers
certain prerogatives, such as immunities from
taxation, from providing a guard-contingent
and the like.
The earliest statutes of the University date
from 1 275, but for long afterwards they make
no distinction between binders and others en-
gaged in bookmaking. In 1401, without
any attempt at emancipation from the guid-
ance of the University, the bookseller, bind-
ers, writers, illuminators, and parchment
makers formed themselves into a confrater-
nity, connected with the Church of St. Andre-
des-Arts, and under the patronage of St. John
the Baptist.
63
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
In 1467 the book business was no longer
in a flourishing condition, and Louis XI
was solicited for permission to modify the
money regulations of the community, the
members being unable to afford the nece
payments for masses. At the same time, trie1
SAINT ANDRE-DES-ARTS
king, wanting to create a national guard,
caused all the trades to be represented in
companies with a semi-military equipment,
each under a banner of its own. With the
introduction of printing the whole business
of bookmaking naturally emerged from the
64
"LES RELIEURS FRAN£AIS "
stagnation made evident by the petition of
1467, and in 1488 the increase of workers
necessitated an edict of Charles VIII, lim-
iting the number of those engaged in the
production of books, who, being under the
protection of the University, enjoyed an im-
munity from taxation. Louis XII, in his
patronage of art and letters, specially ex-
empted them, in 151 3, from a war subsidy
tnat was being raised, from various other
impositions, and from all duties connected
with the protection of the city, except in
cases of extreme danger. This liberal pro-
tection was confirmed by Francois I and
renewed by Henri II and Charles IX.
During the reign of Henri II, in 1 549,
a sumptuary law was passed, and in 1577
its provisions were extended so as to affect
binders. The edict of that year forbade,
among other things, any gilding on leather
except in the service of princes or the
church, and, in regard to books, specially
set forth, " that it was permitted to gild the
leaves simply, and to have only a gold line
65
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
on the covers with a centre-piece not bigger
than a franc at most.,,
Like other similar efforts at sumptuary-
legislation, the edict of 1577 does not seem
to have had the slightest effect, for it was
actually at this time that there arose that
elaborate style of book-ornamentation with
which, rightly or wrongly, the name of
Nicholas Eve has always been associated.
In 1582, in consequence of difficulties con-
nected with the parish of St. Andre and of
its distance from the quarter chiefly inhab-
ited by the trade, the confraternity trans-
ferred itself to the Peres Mathurins, and its
ceremonies were henceforth transacted in
the church of the Sainte-Trinite, belonging
to those Fathers. In 1593 the King re-
leased all the trades from an obligation hith-
erto enforced, which demanded from every
craftsman the execution of a chef d'oeuvre
on his admission as a qualified master.
Henceforth it was sufficient to have served
the time required by statute in each trade.
The practice had evidently become an abuse,
66
"LES RELIEURS FRANfAIS
inasmuch as the jurors, who were the elect-
ive body chosen from the trade, and to
whom the presentation was made, were in
the habit of destroying the book unless it
was redeemed by the workman by a money
L EGUSE DES MATHURINS
payment or some form of entertainment.
It is interesting to observe that the binders
never availed themselves of the exemption
thus given, but that the necessity of offer-
ing a masterpiece to the jurors prevailed as
67
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
a trade regulation as long as the formal ad-
mission of masters existed.
In 1 6 1 8 was issued the first general stat-
ute regulating the craft as distinguished
from the University regulations in detail
which had prevailed hitherto. This statute
laid down general laws for the qualification
of masters, terms of apprenticeship and the
like. It was as a sequel to this new state
of things that an attempt was made in 1621
to exclude gilders from the privileges of qual-
ified membership, and to keep them in sub-
ordination as journeymen. It will be re-
membered that at this period booksellers
were binders and binders booksellers. When
the elaborate ornamentation of books had
brought into existence a specialized class of
workers, those gilders who confined them-
selves to tooling the leather covers, once
admitted as masters, had also taken to them-
selves the selling of books. As long as they
were an insignificant minority they had been
admitted without demur, but by 1621 they
had become a considerable body, and an at-
68
"LES RELIEURS FRAN9AIS
tempt was made to exclude them from the
bookselling privilege by preventing them
from becoming masters. The decision of
Parliament was, however, in favour of the
gilders.
It is in connection with this trial that
the legend arose that the early bookgilders
were gilders of boots and the other leather
accessories of the dress of the period. M.
Thoinan shows how this idea came to prevail,
and the explanation is sufficient to com-
pletely dissipate it. One Ballagny having
fallen into bad repute from dismissing a dis-
honest apprentice before the expiration of
his time, the trade committee procured an
injunction annulling the indentures of the
lad and restraining Ballagny from selling
books. Pigoreau, the former master of
Ballagny, joined the latter in his defence,
and the two secured judgment in their fa-
vour as master gilders and booksellers. A
similar action was brought later on against
other gilders, and then it was that the pros-
ecution attempted to discredit the gilders
69
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
by the assertions that Pigoreau and Ballagny
were originally nothing but boot-gilders,
and had given up that branch of their craft
and taken to what they considered the more
distinguished one of book-gilding in order
that they might constitute themselves book-
sellers, the chief position of distinction at
the time.
The ingenious special pleading on the
part of the prosecutor is the only ground for
the legend. Both the men named had
served their apprenticeships, filled their
time as journeymen, and been passed mas-
ters in conformity to the existing regu-
lations. It is possible that in the very
early days of stamped bindings, the lines
and ornamental patterns that bordered them
were done by the "gaufreurs" already
in possession of the necessary tools for the
purposes of their own special work of lea-
ther decoration; but in a very short time
a certain section of these devoted themselves
exclusively to the application of their art to
books, and very soon indeed constituted a
70
" LES RELIEURS FRANfAIS
class by themselves. In connection with
this subject of bookgilders, M. Thoinan haz-
ards an hypothesis which is not supported
by any testimony. It is that the great de-
signs were not carried out by the book-
gilder at all, who, inasmuch as highly
decorated books were not numerous, prob-
ably had not attained to the necessary ex-
perience and dexterity. It is more likely,
he thinks, that they were worked by the
leather-gilder, whose craft in the sixteenth
century comprised the ornamentation, often
very elaborate, of caskets, sheathes, jewel
cases, and the small details of furniture
covered in leather after the fashion of the
day. These workmen, he imagines, alone
possessed the taste and technical dexterity
to interpret the patterns probably made by
the great masters of design throughout that
time. He believes, further, that the painted
interlaced work, belonging more by inspira-
tion and nature to their trade than to that
of the gilder, was possibly invented as well
as executed by them.
71
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
The history of the trade society during
the seventeenth century is a record of its
disputes with gold-beaters, and with leather-
sellers who had raised their prices, and, most
important of all, of the internal dissensions
of the binder-booksellers, resulting in the
final separation of the two trades in 1686.
The edict of that year gave the parties one
month in which to decide which profession
they would adopt, and set forth the new
regulations governing " Binders and Gilders
of books of the city of Paris."
The University, which had not been con-
sulted as to the separation, opposed it on
behalf of the binders, but was obliged to
give way. The seventeen articles of which
the edict is made up are full of interest, but
we have not space to dwell upon them.
Binders were still obliged to live within the
precincts of the University, the Guards of
the corporation were selected by the King,
and were to visit the workshops and see
that the work was done according to regu-
lations, the interests of the trade were safe-
72
" LES RELIEURS FRANCAIS "
guarded by strict rules relating to apprentice-
ships and masterships, and from time to
time no apprentices were allowed to be
taken if the state of business rendered this
advisable.
It is interesting to note that in 1 700 cer-
tain gilders who wanted to raise their prices
informed against the binders who had re-
fused their demand, stating that the latter
were not sewing their books flexibly, ac-
cording to regulation, but were "sawing in."
The binders in their defence admitted this,
but said that the price of certain books did
not allow of flexible binding, and the Court
accepted their plea, deciding what books
should henceforth be exempted from the
regulations. The eighteenth century is tak-
en up with the gradual revolt of the men
against their masters, until the Revolution
of 1 79 1 finally suppressed all trade corpora-
tions.
We must now touch briefly on some of
the disputed points about which M. Thoi-
nan speaks with authority. He considers
73
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
that there is no warrant for attributing to
the Eve family the style always coupled
with their name, merely because Nicholas
Eve happened to be the royal binder of the
day. It is an assertion based on the idea
that the books issued by the Eves as book-
sellers were necessarily bound by them.
They might equally well have been executed
in other binderies, and in fact the only bind-
ing done for Henri III, which is absolutely
authenticated as from the workshop of
Nicholas Eve " Le livre des statuts du St.
Esprit," in the Bibliotheque Nationale, has a
semis of flames and fleur-de-lys, with em-
blems and the royal arms, and no trace of
the style associated with this binder.
The place of Le Gascon is another mat-
ter upon which the author is very emphatic,
and about which he takes an equally oppo-
site view to that of M. Gruel. It may be
remembered that the latter in his " Manuel
Historique" gave an exquisite reproduction of
the binding in the Bibliotheque Nationale
signed " Florimond Badier invenit et fecit,"
74
"LES RELIEURS FRAN£AIS "
on which the well-known head is repeated
fifty-two times.
M. Gruel with much ingenuity concluded
that Le Gascon, whose real name has always
remained unknown, but whose reputation
was clearly established in 1622, must be
identical with Florimond Badier. M. Thoi-
nan, on the other hand, comes to a differ-
ent conclusion. Badier, apprenticed to Jean
Thomas in 16 10, was admitted as a master
binder in 1645. The style of interlacings
denned by dotted or filigree work, on which
the head is first seen, is quite distinct from
the style which has a frame-work of lines
sometimes broken at top, bottom and sides
by the segments of a circle, and having clus-
ters of flower-work at the corners, or
grouped as a centre-piece, such flowers being
mixed line and filigree work, and only an
occasional ornament being in dots. The
interlaced style first described is not found
before 1645, and M. Thoinan considers that
it constituted a new departure invented by
Badier, and that the head is neither the por-
75
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
trait of Le Gascon nor a tool in common
use by binders of the time, but the personal
signature of Badier. As the head is not
found on any binding before 1645, it is
more likely that Badier should have initiated
his career by its use than that it should be-
long to Le Gascon, who had been practis-
ing since 1622. It follows that all the
pointille bindings attributed to Le Gascon,
having the head, executed for the brothers,
Dupuy, Seguier, Fouquet, and others, should
be assigned to Badier.
Mr. W. Y. Fletcher in an article on
Florimond Badier, contributed to the first
volume of " Bibliographical is not in agree-
ment with M. Thoinan. He considers that
the "Imitation de Jesus Christ," printed in
1640, and preserved in the Bibliotheque
Nationale and the only other signed binding
by Badier, " Les Plaidoyez et Harangues de
M. Le Maistre," printed at Paris, in 1657,
owned by the late Mr. Wakefield Christie
Miller, are more likely to be clever imita-
tions of the great master's manner.
76
" LES RELIEURS FRANfAIS
Of what character then, it may be asked,
are the bindings done by Le Gascon ? M.
Thoinan considers that his style is that
which prevailed for the quarter of a century
after 1622, when he began to practice on
his own account. This style is the frame-
work of line straight or curved, with corners
and clusters of flowers delicately line en-
graved, and with only an occasional detail in
filigree. If the head is found on this kind
of decoration, it is only on bindings after
1645, bindings executed by Badier in the
older style.
Enough has been said to indicate the im-
portant character of M. Thoinan's book,
which ought to find many readers in Eng-
land as well as France.
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
IV
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
N the following remarks on
the application of ornament
to bindings, it is not desired
to lay down any arbitrary
rules. If, after the lapse of
so many centuries, canons of art are still to
seek, if the lesson of the Greeks in sculp-
ture, of the Florentines in painting, of the
Renaissance in decoration has still left the
world without a formulated theory of
aesthetics which obtains the complete con-
sensus of opinion of civilized nations, how
much less likely is it that the principles of
decoration as applied to the humbler arts
81
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
can have become sufficiently crystallized for
universal acceptance. As a matter of fact
confusion of tongues on the subject of ap-
plied ornament is far greater now, when art
is more conscious and less instinctive, than
in the days when the craftsman wrought
out of the fulness of his inspiration.
It has been ever so in the history of the
arts, the period of free creation has never
been one of theory, and when art and handi-
craft were practically indistinguishable, the
artist would have been sorely puzzled to
give a reason for the faith that was in him.
Only when the instinctive moment has
given away to the self-conscious attitude has
the need arisen for canons of taste and for
analysis of the previous products of spon-
taneity. Unhappily the converse is also
true. When the mind is exercised upon
the vital questions of art — what may be its
utterances, what modes of expression are
legitimate, and the like — it is a sign sure
and unfailing that the fullest and freest act-
ivity, the most spontaneous inspiration is for
82
THE BARD OF THE DIMBOVITZA, I 892
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
the time in abeyance. If this is unavoid-
able, and indeed it seems to form part of a
natural sequence, and if the attitude of self-
conscious seeking belongs to our own age,
as I think must be admitted, can we not at
least take heart of grace and turn to some
account this very minute sifting and weigh-
ing of past achievements ? If we can no
longer — at least for the moment — create, in
the most real sense of the word, can we not
discover why, in the matter of applied or-
nament, for instance, we should do certain
things, and why we must assuredly not do
certain other things ?
Yet on looking round at the minor arts
one is tempted to despair, for the only prin-
ciple one can find of universal acceptance is
that there is nothing that may not be done.
The extravagant, the eccentric, the bizarre
everywhere prevails. Mrs. Meynell has
devoted one of her slight but finely handled
essays on "The Rhythm of Life" to what
she calls "the obsession of man by the flow-
er." Is one not reminded of it by one's
85
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
chintzes and cretonnes, one's wall-papers,
carpets, and curtains? "In the shape of
iliUP
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GHAZELS FROM THE DIVAN OF HAFIZ, 1 893
the flower man's own paltriness revisits him
— his triviality, his sloth, his cheapness, his
86
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
wholesale habitualness, his slatternly osten-
tation. What the tyranny has really grown
to can be gauged nowhere so well as in
country lodgings, where the most ordinary
things of design and decoration have sifted
down and gathered together, so that foolish
ornament gains accumulative force and
achieves a conspicuous commonness. Stem,
petal, and leaf — the fluent forms that a man
has not by heart, but certainly by rote — are
woven, printed, cast, and stamped wherever
restlessness and insimplicity have feared to
leave plain spaces."
If we turn to our furniture is it not most-
ly covered with ornament — save the mark
— so that the quality of its material is hid-
den, which perhaps as it happens may not
be wholly without intent? Be that as it
may, it is at least a subject for reflection
that even the oak that has descended to us,
in its plain simplicity, from our forefathers,
must perforce be carved upon with all man-
ner of puerile patterns, before it can prove
marketable.
87
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
An early critic of Mr. Cobden Sander-
son's bindings, somewhat indignant at the
high prices he obtained, thus describes his
work with caustic irony : " His soul is as
much in what he leaves out as in what he
puts in — you seem to pay for reticence."
Unconsciously this writer hit upon a great
principle, almost the greatest in decorative
matters, which, if it only obtained as it
should do, would save us from much of the
vulgar meanness that prevails in every-day
minor art. How many of us would not
gladly pay for reticence if so be we could
find it! But, alas! the public is of the
same mind as the critic. In proportion to
the price must be the quantity of ornament,
and so it comes about that the eye is fatigued
by its presence in season and out of season, and
competitors in the market of production vie
with each other as to the amount that can
be offered for the money. Is it wholly im-
possible to educate public taste in this one
matter ? Every year now brings its exhibi-
tion of arts and crafts in different parts of
88
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
THE SHF.PHEARDES CALENDER (KELMSCOTT PRESS), 1 895
the world, and almost every month its prac-
tical hand-books, its treatises on the theory
and practice of design, or on the principles
and analysis of ornament. Is it not possible
89
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
to teach that the due subordination of de-
coration is every bit as important as a feel-
ing for beauty of form, or a grasp of the
limitations imposed by the character of the
material and the tools that work it. The
designer who does not know where and when
to stay his hand fails just as much as the
man who has no sense of proportion, no in-
stinct for grace of curve, or purity of line ;
fails even more perhaps than the man who
treats metal like wood, or stone like iron.
To learn the lesson of appropriate book
decoration we must take a look at some of
the early work. And by appropriate we
do not mean in any way allusive. The
size and relative dimensions of length
and breadth, not necessarily the written or
printed content, should give the key to
the design on the outside of the book,
though the subject-matter may often suggest
the motive for a pattern. Some of the very
early stamped work done in England toward
the end of the twelfth century is as signifi-
cant for our purpose as any that came later,
9o
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
in the days when binding has been justly-
celebrated as reaching its zenith as an art.
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A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES. R. L. STEVENSON, 1 885
The books bound for Bishop Pudsey, and
still preserved in the cathedral library at
Durham are decorated most frequently with
91
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
dies of a varied kind representing men on
horseback, fabulous animals, and formal de-
signs. The scheme or ornament on the side
is generally a parallelogram formed by lines
of these designs, but in some examples there
is interlaced chain-work of Eastern character
which also frames the sides in lines that run
parallel with the boards.
The Netherlandish bindings of the mid-
dle of the fourteenth century show us an-
other kind of decoration, strong and simple
and eminently adjusted to the natural lines
of the book. This is the panel stamp, some-
times occupying most of the cover, some-
times used only as a central ornament,
sometimes again bordered by a motto or text
in the decorative letters of the time, which
not infrequently included the name of the
binder. These panels were either composed
of spiral foliage containing birds and beasts,
or they were pictorial and represented scenes
like the adoration of the Magi and the An-
nunciation. But the most attractive picto-
rial panel stamps are to be found on the
92
THE HOUSE OF LIFE. D. G. ROSSETTI, 1 894
91
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
French bindings of the period. Most of
these represent scriptural scenes, but some
few are parlant, like the well-known one of
the Rouen binder Jehan Moulin, in which
the device of a miller and his sacks has a
punning allusion to the name.
In all this early stamped work we get
these two main schemes of decoration, the
border and the centre panel. The char-
acter of the designs, too, was bold and broad
until degeneration set in toward the end
of the sixteenth century. At its best period
there was subordination of detail to breadth
of effect ; the main lines of the ornamenta-
tion, too, were always distinct, so that there
was both balance and contrast, which in the
matter of surface decoration may almost be
said to correspond to light and shade in the
field of pictorial art.
The next period during which the in-
stinct for appropriateness in design seems
most marked is that of the early Italian and
French bindings, when gold tooling had be-
come established. At that time the feeling
95
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
for symmetry prevailed over all else, and no
doubt in the special geometrical character
THE DEFENCE OF GUENEVERE. WILLIAM MORRIS, I 858
of many of the designs it was often carried
to excess. Notwithstanding this, however,
96
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
there is no time at which there was such
largeness of conception, such harmony of
line, and, above all, such dignity of re-
sult. Nor was there any lack of variety
of treatment. Indeed, one is struck by
the wealth of resource shown by the de-
signers of the time, considering that the
framework was so largely geometrical.
Sometimes intricate and elaborate, at others
simple and severe, the interlacings are rarely
repeated. The spaces are treated with ad-
mirable reticence; it is but seldom they are
filled in with any detail, though occasionally
in parts they are studded with gold dots. This,
it may be noted, is one of the lessons we
may learn from a study of the bindings of
this particular time — the value to the design
of those blank spaces between the lines of
gold that of themselves decorate so simply
yet so richly the covers of those early
printed books. There is a fine sense of pro-
portion in the severity of many of the patterns,
while grace is attained in the character of the
lines and curves instead of by triviality of
97
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
detail, which is so often the modern method
of achieving the same end.
At this point one may, perhaps, be par-
doned for making a slight digression on the
subject of the fashion that has prevailed so
long at home and abroad of reproducing
the designs of early French bindings.
There is one special attraction in the old
work that lies quite apart from its beauty and
instinct of design. That attraction is the
spontaneous handling, the freedom of treat-
ment that characterizes all the bindings in
the golden age of the art before the last
part of the sixteenth century. We may
find, no doubt, some explanation of this in
the want of technical dexterity which has
since been acquired, in the fact that the
standard of finish had not taken the undue
position which it has since occupied, but
the real reason is probably that the execu-
tor like the designer was also an artist, and
in his hands the result never attained to me-
chanical precision, but was always instinct
with movement and life. In the transfer
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
of the design to the cover the spirit of the
designer was in a measure transferred. The
present-day imitations of Groliers, Eves and
A SHADOW OF DANTE. M. F. ROSSETTI, 187I
Le Gascons are lifeless copies. They are,
indeed, executed with far more technical
skill than the originals, often with far more
accuracy of line and curve, but the spirit of
99
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
the artist is absent, and the result is a tri-
umph of formal skill, not an achievement
of artistic feeling.
It was during the reign of Henri II that
bindings reached their highest perfection.
At no subsequent period have they been so
bold and fine in design and so unfettered by
any tradition. To begin with, the decora-
tive conception in itself was in the grand
manner, and when the graceful scroll work
and interlacings were diversified by fleurons
and other small tools, these in no way inter-
fered in detail with the effect as a whole.
How consummate a period this was, not
only in binding but in all the decora-
tive arts, may be judged from the fact that
it has been the main source of inspiration
for all subsequent ages. It is, indeed, on ac-
count of these things of great price in the
past that we have so much that is trivial in
the present. For to the excellence of that
past is due the machine-made reproduction
of its detail, a detail that, removed from its
setting, is often mere futility — " the multi-
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
plicity that is the disgrace of decoration. "
If art is to be art, it must have some or-
ganic quality, and that quality is one that
can never be multiplied, and least of all by
the perfection of mechanical processes.
Let us take a look at some of the other
styles in binding that have a well-deserved
reputation. And first that of the Eves, a
family of binders who are said to have worked
between 1578 and 1 63 1 . The geometrically
shaped compartments still remain often linked
together by interlaced circles. The centres of
these compartments are filled with small fleu-
rons instead of the well-articulated moresque
ornaments of Grolier's time, and they are
surrounded by scrolls and spirals and branches
of laurels and palm. It is an extremely
elaborate style, carried out with much feli-
city, and resulting in great richness of effect.
No other has had so much admiration be-
stowed upon it. The compartments in its
composition are very numerous, the branch-
work, which is the most original feature, is
entirely light and graceful and unsparingly
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
interwoven, while the entire field of the
cover is filled with delicate detail. But we
miss the architectural qualities of the earlier
HERODIAS. G. FLAUBERT ( VALE PRESS ), I9OI
period — the unification of parts that give
the sense of wholly just proportion, the fine
spaces of untouched leather that show the
complete control of the designer's fancy.
• _£*
!
I
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
In the Eve bindings, it is true, we see great
imaginative qualities and much resource,
but the artist's fancy is too unchecked, and
there is a restlessness in the result that does
not make for satisfaction. If it is " the per-
fection of richness in book-decoration " —
and it would be hard to deny this descrip-
tion of the style claimed for it — it is not in
our opinion the perfection of appropriate-
ness, especially when seen on volumes of
large size.
The next well-known style — that of Le
Gascon — is substantially a further develop-
ment of the Eve school, though very differ-
ent in character. Just as the Eves achieved
originality, not in the framework of their
designs, but by the happy accident of their
branch decoration, so Le Gascon acquired a
manner through that novel change in his
scroll-work which is always associated with
his name. Ever since the time of Grolier,
when individual ornaments were rather large
and like in character to those used by Al-
dus at his press, the tools had been getting ever
103
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
finer and finer, until in the hands of the un-
known binder called Le Gascon they reached
the extreme of delicacy He took the geomet-
UNE VIE SIMPLE. G. FLAUBERT (VALE PRESS ) , I9O]
rical framework of the Eves as the basis of
his designs, but had all his ornaments . cut
with a dotted face instead of solid line. In
what is believed to be his early work he used
104
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
a substantial frame-work of continuous line,
but later on he abandoned it and made up
his designs of the pointille ornament alone,
LEGENDS DE ST. JULIEN. G. FLAUBERT ( VALE PRESS ), 1 9OO
which resulted in a tracery of the most min-
ute character. In that early work he is
seen at his best, for, as he nearly always used
morocco of a brilliant red, the contrast be-
105
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
tween the bands bordered by solid line and
the spaces within filled with a mass of spark-
ling arabesque, results in an effect of color
not often equalled and certainly never sur-
passed.
In a certain sense a Le Gascon binding of
the simpler period fulfills the conditions of
proportion and balance better than one of the
Eve school. For in the first place, though
the detail is equally lavish, yet being all of
fine pointille scroll-work, there is not the
want of repose about the whole which re-
sults from that admixture of diverse orna-
ment which characterizes the Eve style in
its latest manifestations. And in the second
place the strongly marked bands of color
above described emphasize the lay-out of
the design and so preserve its architectural
qualities unimpaired. The firmness of
drawing in the ground-plan is not tampered
with by the intrusion of detail.
There is little more that is instructive
from our point of view in the history of
binding. The Vandyke borders of Derome,
106
DESIGN IN BOOKBINDING
inspired by the lace-work of the time, have
no qualities of design. Indeed, some of the
English and Scotch bindings of the last
quarter of the seventeenth century and
beginning of the eighteenth show more
instinct for appropriate decoration than any
later work in the French school. Hence-
forth multiplicity of detail and repetition
of parts seem to do duty for design, and the
simplicity and dignity of the early masters
are forgotten in a profuse and meaningless
ornamentation.
In conclusion I must add a few words
concerning the illustrations that accompany
the text. It is not suggested that they are
adequate expressions of the principles that
have been set forth in the course of this
paper, which seem to underlie the best
work of every period. Nor is it to be
assumed that they are in any way put for-
ward as models for imitation, since imita-
tion, though it may be the sincerest form
of flattery, is at the root of all that is most
impotent in matters of art or handicraft.
107
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Their purport is chiefly to show what can be
done with a few tools in the direction above
indicated, under the guiding principles of
appropriateness of line, simplicity of effect
and reticence in the matter of display. The
three last show the same tool disposed in a
panel, a border and an all-over design.
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
RENCH craftsmen of to-day,
as far as binding is concerned,
fall naturally into two classes,
those who still repeat and
adapt old models, and those
who are bent upon seeking some new thing.
The first consider that the right traditions
of ornament have been given once and for
all, and need only be followed with ever-
increasing skill and technical perfection ; the
second feel that new departures are necessary
if the art is to respond to modern needs.
The conservatives restrict their ornaments to
the strictly traditional, admitting no further
novelty than that which consists in fresh
in
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
adaptations of the same " tools," while there-
formers will sooner go out of the lines hith-
erto recognized as legitimate, than continue
to work in the well-worn grooves. It is the
old opposition between " les classiques " and
" les jeunes," often recurrent in the literary
history of France, and permeating, as it
would seem, the whole artistic life of the
country in a way that has no parallel here.
Such a cleavage, well denned among poets
and painters of the moment, is thus repeated
in miniature in the humbler arts, greatly to
their benefit, and to that of the public as
well.
That the old traditions of any art at its
best and most inspired periods should be
kept green is a safeguard against its deterio-
ration and lapse into the merely novel and
eccentric. That efforts should be made on
the lines of a new interpretation of the scope
and possibilities of that art prevents the life-
less copying of past achievement. It is thus
that such opposition benefits the art or craft
itself; but for the public, too, it is of equal
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
value. They have on the one side, not only
the actual models of the past, of which per-
haps they must go in search, but their trans-
lations in the hands of the modern worker ;
and on the other side the attempts to get
away from these models and to invent anew.
The tendency toward the approval of mere
eccentricity, which we must admit to be
prevalent at the present time, has thus a
chance of being held in check by the con-
stant presence of that which has become
classical. The art of binding will never be
able to free itself from the support of tradi-
tion. If there are modern books belonging
exclusively in initiation to our own age, and
therefore lending themselves most appropri-
ately to new experiments by the binder who
is original and personal in his work, there
will always be others, numerous and valuable
as well, that it will be impossible to fitly
decorate without a profound study of all that
was best in the past.
In noticing some typical French binders
of to-day, we propose to take them in the
"3
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
following sequence: those who are purely
classic in their decoration ; those who,
mainly classic, have yet a sympathy with
new departures and have contributed to-
ward them, and lastly, those who, in the
attempt to break fresh ground, have, more or
less, invented a style of their own.
If there seems less to be said about the first
than about some of the others, it is only
because they are content not to challenge
criticism, and because their work is confined
to lines well-known to all amateurs in bind-
ing.
And first we will take M. Chambolle,
whose house was founded about 1834 by
Duru. Duru learnt his solid "forwarding"
— what the French so aptly call " le corps
d'ouvrage " — as a pupil of Bauzonnet, in
whose workshop Trautz was then a " finish-
er/' He was desirous of setting up together
with Trautz, but Bauzonnet, who had the
same idea, carried the day, and his firm be-
came that of Trautz-Bauzonnet, while Duru
started on his own account. His Jansenist
114
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
bindings soon became famous, and later on,
with Marius Michel as gilder, and a clien-
tele of the richest booklovers of his day, he
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A BINDING BY CHAMBOLLE FOR GAUTIER S " MLLE. DE MAUPIN
did much elaborate work, although always of
a traditional kind. His reputation was so
great that even old bindings were destroyed
that the books might be clothed afresh by
Duru. In i 86 1 he began to think of re-
us
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
tirement, and associated Chambolle with him
for the next two years, that he might pass
on to a worthy successor the habits and
practices of his house. These Chambolle
has kept up, and although in the matter
of style he has never adventured upon new
paths, his bindings are among the best of
their kind.
Another name, equally well-known, is that
of M. Marcelin Lortic, who, since the death
of his father in 1892, has carried on his
business alone. It was in 1840 that Lortic
pere came to Paris determined to make a
name for himself in the craft that he loved.
With patient resolution he gradually gained
great mastery over it, winning medals from
time to time at different exhibitions, until the
government finally recognized his services
to art by giving him the Legion of Honor in
1878. The secret of his success, though an
open one, is none the less difficult of imitation.
A stern critic of his own results, he was never
satisfied with falling below his own standard
of perfection, and in the attainment of this
u6
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
A BINDING BY LORTIC FILS FOR POE's "TAMERLANE," I 894
ideal he would often strip and re-do the work
until it met with his approval.
His feeling with regard to books was of
the same order. Nothing short of the most
perfect specimens were fit for his efforts as
an artist, and when he died there were some
two hundred volumes, the best of their kind
117
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
in bindings, executed by himself. He was,
perhaps, the first binder who attempted to
leave the beaten track. Up to that time
there had been no higher ideal among his
fellows than to produce imitation after imi-
tation of the old models. There was no
suggestion of originality or innovation of
any sort. His misfortune was, that, as he
had but few modern books entrusted to him,
his innovations were often inopportune,
and were put upon classics that a finer taste
would have exempted from decorative ex-
periment.
One son, M. Edmond Lortic, has inher-
ited his taste for books, and is well known
as a collector of valuable editions ; the other,
Marcelin, was apprenticed as a binder at
fourteen, and continued to learn " forward-
ing " for four years, when he became a
" finisher," and has ever since devoted him-
self to that branch of the business. Like
M. Chambolle, he prides himself upon be-
ing a pure classic, and it is not often that
he deviates from the most beaten track.
118
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
We pass on to M. Emile Mercier, suc-
cessor to Frampois Cuzin, who died in i 890,
and for whom he worked as gilder. M.
Mercier began his apprenticeship in 1869,
with M. Magnier, where he remained three
and a half years. After that he was in two
houses of second-rate importance until 1 876,
when he took over the whole bound morocco
work' at M. Smeers. In 1882 he joined
M. Cuzin, from whose taste and counsel
he benefited greatly, and of whose friendly
aid he can never say enough. For eight
years their collaboration was of the closest
and warmest nature, only ending with M.
Cuzin's death. Two years later M. Mer-
cier took over the direction of the business,
and his great object ever since has been to
sustain the reputation of his predecessor.
All the gilding exhibited on the bindings
of M. Cuzin in 1889 was done by M. Mer-
cier, and a contemporary binder, writing of
this display, describes it in the following
terms : " We have rarely seen ' finishing '
executed with such vigour ; the decoration
119
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
seems to be chased in massive gold. It is
certainly of extraordinary solidity and will
retain its brilliancy during many years."
A BINDING BY MERCIER FOR " ROMEO AND JULIET
The French have a higher standard of the
technical qualities of " finishing " than ex-
ists elsewhere, and criticise it entirely apart
from design, or anything else connected
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
with the binding. It is interesting to ob-
serve that in the opinion of his brother
A BINDING BY GRUEL FOR ZOLA S " LE REVE
craftsmen M. Mercier is the finest gilder of
the moment.
M. Leon Gruel's business is the oldest
established of all described in this paper.
Founded in 1 8 1 1 by M. Desforges it was given
21
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
over to his son-in-law Gruel in 1 8 2 5 . On the
death of her husband in 1 846 Madame Gruel
continued the conduct of the house till 1 8 5 1 ,
when she re-married with M. Englemann,
a printer of note. Henceforth the firm,
under the name of Gruel-Englemann, or-
ganized a new departure in the issue of fine
editions of Service books, missals and the
like, of which it has since made a specialty,
but at the same time the binding depart-
ment was kept up to its former level of ex-
cellence. In 1875 Madame Englemann,
again left a widow, associated her two sons
with her ; M. Leon Gruel, son of her first
marriage, became head of the bindery, and
M. Edouard Englemann, eldest son of the
second marriage, took over the direction
of the printing and publishing department.
From its earliest days the business has al-
ways had the highest reputation, both for
initiative in artistic matters, as well as for
irreproachable execution in the detail of its
many-sided achievements. It has indeed
been the nursery of all the chief binders of
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
the time, and no other house in any coun-
try has a roll-call of such distinguished
names. Marius Michel pere remained there
twelve years, and only left it to establish
himself as the most celebrated gilder of the
century. Chambolle and Thouvenin were
there also, as well as David, Thibaron,
Motte, Joly, Loisetier and others, who have
since founded binderies of their own. Nor
must we omit the names of Rossigneux, a
designer of extraordinary genius, Lienard,
the designer and carver in wood, the broth-
ers Sollier, enamellers of exquisite taste, all
of whom contributed toward the revival of
mediaeval bindings, of which M. Gruel dis-
covered the traditions anew. To the French
the decorated Prayer Book is a form of luxury,
and on the occasion of a first Communion
or of marriage affords the opportunity for a
costly offering. It will thus easily be seen
that on devotional works can be lavished a
variety of binding that finds no place in the
ordinary library. M. Gruel has employed
all the decorative arts as adjuncts to the
i*3
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
embellishments of the " livre de piete."
Painted mosaics, enamels, wrought metal in
A BINDING BY
clasps, corners and panels, sculptured wood
and ivory, the monastic invention of " cuir
cisele," all these arts of many kinds and
many ages have been applied in faultless
124
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
workmanship to the Service Book of this
century.
The work of his house is, perhaps, better
known in America than that of any other,
on account of the important collection sent
to the Chicago Exhibition, which comprised
a carefully studied variety of book-covers,
including most of the kinds above men-
tioned. The possession of a very fine col-
lection of ancient bindings has enabled M.
Leon Gruel to become an authority on the
history of binding and to make researches
which took shape a few years back in the
"Manuel historique et bibliographique de
l'amateur des relieurs." This book, finely
illustrated, is the most important work of
reference we possess, though since its publi-
cation, M. Thoinan and others have writ-
ten much and learnedly on the subject.
Besides the conduct of his varied and
important business, of which he became sole
head and representative in 1891, M. Gruel
finds time to take a real interest in the
technical education of the coming genera-
125
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
tion of binders. He has been president of
the Chambre Syndicale Patronale des Re-
lieurs, etc*, since its foundation in 1 891, and
it is through the genial and generous attitude
he has always maintained toward his brother
binders, as well as through his disinterested
labours, that it is now established on a thor-
oughly sound basis. His help and advice
are always forthcoming to the genuine lover
of bindings, and the present brief account
of what is being done in Paris at the present
time owes its existence to his friendly aid.
Another binder, who, together with M.
Gruel, may be said to form a connecting link
between the old and the new, is M. Henri
Michel, son of the great gilder of that name.
His father, born in 1821, made his first
apprenticeship at Lyons, but came to Paris
in 1838, and worked for a short time in the
atelier of Reiss. But in 1839 he went to
M. Gruel, where he remained as gilder for
ten years, getting more and more perfection
of touch with every year that passed. In
1849, ne set UP f°r himself, and from that
126
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
time till 1876 he worked as finisher for all
the chief binders in Paris. His first clients
were Duru and Cape, but very soon others
followed, till his employers included David,
Hardy, and Chambolle, Thibaron, Cuzin,
and every other binder of note. During
more than a quarter of a century, Jean
Michel, or Marius Michel, as he by that
time called himself, continued to put forth
the most exquisite " tooling" that has ever
been seen. His taste was excellent, for
while at that period there was no idea of
invention in the matter of design, but only
of copying the old masters, Marius Michel
went straight to the very best period for his
inspiration. The great unknown designer
of the Renaissance, who decorated the books
of Henri II was his master, and to that style,
the most purely classic in the best sense, he
kept faithful throughout his life. Some of
his best work is in the library at Chantilly,
for the Due d'Aumale, during his exile un-
der the Empire, entrusted to Cape a succes-
sion of books, which, gilt by Marius Michel,
127
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
constitute the former's chief title to fame.
Unfortunately, most of Marius Michel's
early work bears only the name of the binder
who employed him, but after a time ama-
teurs demanded his signature as well, and the
volumes that have it are of great value in
consequence of their limited number.
Michel died about twelve years ago, at the
age of seventy. His son, Henri, born in
1846, went into the workshops at sixteen,
but he also attended the lectures at the
Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, which have ever
rendered much service to French industries.
In 1866, he undertook the important task
of making tracings for his father of all the
historic bindings ; and he gave especial study
to the decoration of the backs that were in
keeping with the sides, while he himself
executed many of the most important backs
for his father's clients. In conjunction with
his father, he wrote two important works
on Binding, the first serious attempts toward
a literature of the subject. These were
"La Reliure Fran9aise depuis l'invention
128
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
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A BINDING BY MARIUS MICHEL FOR GERARD DE NERVAL S " SYLVIE
de rimprimerie jusqu'a la fin du XVI I Ie
siecle," and " La Reliure Fran£aise commer-
ciale et industrielle depuis l'invention de
rimprimerie jusqu'a nos jours/' published
in 1880 and i 88 i , respectively. In 1889,
he published " L'ornamentation des reliures
129
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
modernes," which sets forth, with admir-
able clearness, his views upon design. He
was the first to advocate novelty of treat-
ment, and to deprecate the prevailing fashion
of putting facsimiles of the great masters on
every book, new as well as old. He shows
that the distinction of the nineteenth cen-
tury binding is the attempt to get appropri-
ateness of design, and dares even to find it
amiss in the old masters that they clothed
their most serious as well as their lightest
works with the same fashion of ornament.
Such a point of view, coming, as it does,
from so perfect a reproducer of past chefs-
d'oeuvre, marks an era in the modern his-
tory of the art. Not less important are his
remarks on the servile copying of patterns.
The artist and artisan in former days made
his careful sketch in church or museum,
till, penetrated with the spirit of that which
he admired, he was able to reproduce at will
from memory, adding at the same time a
part of himself. Now, in these days of
cheap reproduction, everyone buys a print
130
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
or photograph, and all that is demanded of
the workman is to copy it with slavish ac-
curacy. Thirty years ago everything was
good except what was modern, and the col-
lector forgot, that, had the amateur of the
past, himself a collector also, not appreciated
the best that was modern in his time, some
of the finest traditions in art could never have
existed. Neither Mazarin nor Fouque
made Le Gascon copy Grolier. A style is
not made in a day, but certainly entire pre-
occupation with the past will do much to
hinder the possibility of that pressure of
taste that constitutes a style. In this same
treatise he insists further on the necessity of
not mixing different motives, of keeping
the details in harmony with the general
scheme, and of letting the main idea always
remain prominent, instead of being lost in
accessories. The binder, too, should recog-
nize the natural limitations of the craft,
and abide by them. He should not attempt
to entrench upon other arts, nor try to ex-
press more than he is able in his own field.
131
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
The spirit of the text should be suggested
in colour and decoration, but the direct
imagery of material motives should be left
to the gift book and the advertising cover.
It must be said that M. Michel has ex-
emplified in his own work all that he here
lays down as canons of taste. He set the
example of fresh initiative by being the
first to employ floral motives in the decora-
tion of his bindings, drawing the flowers in
the first instance straight from nature and
subsequently conventionalizing them for the
tool-cutter. His advice — to leave the mak-
ing of copies and try new roads — has been
adopted by several of the younger men, as
we shall show later, but the restrictions of
taste he advocates have, in some cases, not
been adopted, and the bizarre and rococo
are apparently thought to constitute a suffi-
cient claim to originality.
The illustrations here given of M. Mich-
el's work are not worthily representative,
but twenty-six of his best books are repro-
duced in M. Beraldi's " La Reliure du XIXe
132
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
siecle." An extremely facile and versatile
designer, his styles are numerous and always
undergoing fresh developments. Besides
A BINDING BY MARIUS MICHEL FOB XAVIER DE MAISTRE S
" VOYAGE AUTOUR DE MA CHAMBRE."
those already alluded to, we find one more
recent, showing a certain reaction against
gold. In this the mosaics are executed with
fine gradation of colour, and all the tooling is
133
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
blind. In some of the mosaic work, in
which real iridescence of colour is obtained,
the effects are got by staining. But every-
where there is such mastery of line and
curve, such perfect feeling for tone and tint,
as well as such exquisite workmanship, that
gold would seem but a vulgar adjunct. Some
few years ago M. Michel exhibited a case
of bindings in this style at the Champ de
Mars, of which all the decoration was done
by his own hand. His influence on the
most modern school of binding has been
considerable, as it may well be, considering
how sound he is as a theorist and how in-
spiring as a practitioner. He may be said
to have fought equally for novelty of ideas,
the restraint of a fine taste, and the standard
of a technique entirely above reproach.
For some time after 1885 the passion for
novelty showed itself in the application to
binding of the various materials employed
at the period prior to the invention of print-
ing— wood, engraved and carved, plaques of
metal or porcelain, ivories, enamels and
134
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
miniatures, all found an application to the
book covers of that time. But by the ma-
jority morocco was still considered the ideal
covering, and to such the desire for a new
form of decoration resulted in the creation
of the symbolic binding. This idea that the
decorative outside of a book should be em-
blematic of what is within, has obtained an
extraordinary success in France and is es-
pecially characteristic of the last part of this
century. Needless to say that the idea proved
a complete snare to the craftsman who was
not an artist. It proved, perhaps, no less a pit-
fall to the imaginative, the wildness of whose
fancy was their only stock in trade, and who
considered that eccentricity of motive could
cover any amount of technical inefficiency.
While advocating novelty of treatment, it
was against this exuberant but unrestrained
effort that Marius Michel directed part of
the pamphlet above mentioned, which ap-
peared shortly before the exhibition of 1889,
and brought him no small amount of unpop-
ularity among his fellows. It did not take
135
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
long before his criticism, coupled with the
more educated taste of the collector, reduced
the emblematic binding to comparatively
reasonable limits ; but as it still has a con-
siderable hold on French taste, and as it is
achieved with more or less success by cer-
tain of the younger generation of binders, it
may be well to examine it a little more in
detail.
It differs, then, from the older methods
both in invention and technique. Instead of
the same kind of detail being worked on
almost every volume alike, if not in the
same disposition, we get an attempt to make
the binding symbolize the contents, an effort
to obtain a sort of allegorical ornament, suited
to that particular book and to no other. But
this leads in some cases to dangerous results.
In order to produce these effects the tech-
nique is not confined to the old lines, but the
treatment of leather is forced into direc-
tions to which it does not naturally lend it-
self. Some of the modelled leather work, for
example, attempts to give effects of sculp-
136
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
ture ; some, that is treated in mosaic, to go
even further and reproduce the art of the
illustrator ; so that we find occasional results
like the bindings of Wiener, which resemble
reduced posters more than anything else.
It may probably be said, without fear of
contradiction, that no art makes any genuine
advance by going outside the province to
which it is restricted by its material, and the
application of that material. Attempts
by binders to invade the field of the other
decorative arts, even if they are allied arts,
will never really satisfactorily extend the
scope of their own.
May we not possibly go a step further
and say that the outside should certainly not
attempt to reveal the inside, that the extrav-
agance of picture bindings are a mistake,
and that the allegory of the decoration, if
there is one, should assuredly not be such that
he who runs can read.
Of the younger generation of binders, the
innovators of their day who strike the per-
sonal note in what they undertake, we will
137
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
first mention M. Petrus Ruban, who, born
in 1857, founded his business in 1879 and
gained a silver medal at the Exhibition of
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A BINDING BY RUBAN
the Palais de P Industrie in 1886. About
ten years ago he started the special kind of
binding to which he now chiefly devotes
himself, and only within the last few years
has he signed his books inside with name and
138
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
date — a new departure that he considers
marks the time when he ceased to do any but
the most highly finished work. He has done
work in each of what we may for convenience
call the classic and symbolic styles. It seemed
for some time as if he intended to associate
himself entirely with the latter, and his in-
laid morocco bindings, modelled and coloured
by hand in addition, ranked with the finest
specimens of their class. But he seems of
late to have returned with fresh interest to
that special technique of the binder — gold
tooling — in which individual genius showed
itself during the best period of the art.
That, of course, need not be disassociated
from inlay, and in the blending of harmon-
ious tones M. Ruban shows a most delicate
feeling for colour.
In the binding of "H/EfFort," we see the
almost complete range of his technique, and
each of the panels has some of the inlaid
and modelled work with which his earlier
efforts are associated. Another illustration
is that of a "doublure," more simple and
139
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
in the opinion of many more attractive by
reason of the fewer elements introduced.
An admirable example of morocco, mod-
elled by hand in relief, with little or no gold,
may be found in the cover of a fine paper
copy of the celebrated " Histoire des quatre
fils d'Aymon," illustrated by Grasset, and
now of extreme rarity. The foundation is
a bronze-morocco with mosaics of different
colours that blend rather than contrast with
it, and all the work is "blind," with the
exception of a little dull "old gold" in
the mosaics, and the flowers which are stud-
ded with brilliant gold dots. This book,
like the work of M. Marius Michel, some-
what similar in character, shows how mis-
taken are the majority who think no binding
decorated unless it glistens with gold. The
methods employed in this kind of modelling,
for which none of the stamps are used that
constitute the "tools" of the ordinary fin-
isher, may perhaps be seen better on a copy
of Flaubert's " Coeur Simple," where a
bronze morocco is inlaid with naturalistic
140
AN ELABORATE BINDING BY RUBAN
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
flowers of different colours modelled by hand
in considerable relief and also without gold.
Another style is found on a doublure of a
A BINDING BY RUBAN FOR GERARD DE NERVAL S " SYLVIE
binding of "Sylvie" by Gerard de Nerval.
The outside is already figured in Bouchot's
" De la Reliure," but the inside is given here
as representative of a very attractive vari-
ation on the ordinary mosaic. The convol-
143
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
vulus flowers and leaves are stained and shaded
by hand on a cream-coloured morocco ground
and delicately outlined in gold. There is no
A DOUBLURE BY RUBAN
inlay, and the effect is excessively dainty,
though slighter, and less emphasized than
where different leathers are used. The cover
is of the tan-coloured leather known as La
144
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
Valliere, inlaid with small flowers of a pale
green, and has a design that, gilt three times,
according to French custom in the best
houses, took forty-five days to complete. M.
Ruban is known for the care with which he
suits his designs to the books they decorate,
and even the accessories are studied in the
same way, the brocaded silks that he employs
as " ends " belonging to the period corre-
sponding with the book. His work is well
represented in M. Beraldi's book.
In connection with these bindings we
may draw the attention of the reader to
what seems to be an almost universal char-
acteristic of the French in their application
of floral motives to design. They are al-
ways what we should term naturalistic;
the plant retains its natural growth, it is
not conventionalized, that is to say, treated
by means of repetition, alternation and sym-
metry. There is either a representation
of the plant as it is in nature or else the
Japanese arrangement of one or more ele-
ments isolated and casually introduced.
H5
BOOKBINDERS* AND THEIR CRAFT
Marius Michel, in the pamphlet previously
alluded to, expressly states that the plant-
form should not be "stylisee," by which we
presume he means conventionalized, but
should be kept close to nature, though
treated with simplicity. We know, too,
that he has always made a special study of
plants in the country with a view to keep-
ing this closeness to nature in his employ-
ment of them for his own decorative work.
This is not the place to discuss the mer-
its of this theory, but a constant observation
of the decorative arts in France will force
upon one's notice the fact that it is a theory
of almost universal adoption over there.
Charles Meunier, who was born in 1866,
was apprenticed to Marius Michel for a very
short time, and at the age of twenty set up
an atelier of his own. He threw himself
at once into the new style of his era, the
incised and coloured leather work, which
marks the picture binding we have spoken
of as characteristic of the younger French
school for the last ten years. For a short
146
A BINDING BY RAPARLIER
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SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
time he confined himself very largely to
half-bindings for the backs of which he in-
vented emblematic decoration, and one ex-
ample of his work shows him at this stage.
In incised and modelled leather he has
achieved great success, and several applica-
tions of this treatment were devoted to
the "Trois rils d,Aymon.,, For this book,
profusely illustrated by Grasset and brought
out with all the luxury of print and paper
that the publishers could command, Meu-
nier has designed about forty covers. It
was at first somewhat of a failure, being too
high in price for the general public, and
issued in too large an edition for the collec-
tors of rare volumes. But Marius Michel
took it in hand, and by dint of sumptuous
binding managed to float it with success.
From the curious character of the illustra-
tions by Grasset, full of a strange blending
of the art of many times and many countries,
the book lent itself surprisingly to that em-
blematic type of binding then in full fash-
ion, and to the new technique in its vari-
149
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ous manifestations that carried into effect
the symbolism of the designer. Marius
Michel made many most successful experi-
ments, and when he refused to go on de-
signing afresh for the same book, Meunier
was appealed to with the result above
named. On this work there may be found
the most typical and satisfactory instances
of nineteenth-century binding, the majority
being in the incised and coloured leather
brought to such perfection by Marius Mi-
chel and by Meunier.
As in all the ateliers described, with the
exception of those of MM. Gruel and Marius
Michel, the personnel of the establishment
does not consist of more than three or four
workers, one of whom is a son of M. Cuzin
and a promising " finisher." For such con-
ditions to prevail as are found here and else-
where in Paris, which include confidence on
the part of the master, and leisure to work
without pressure on the part of his subordi-
nates, the workman must be worthy of his
trust. " What saves France in her industries
i5o
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
at the present time," said one of the great
binders, the other day, "is that her work-
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A BINDING BV RAPARLIER
men are still artists." And it is true, whether
French taste in matters of art coincides with
our own, or is often at variance with it, the
fact remains, that the majority of French
151
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
workmen have the conscience, if not always
the inspiration, of the artist.
Romain Raparlier was the most enthusi-
astic innovator and the boldest in his devia-
tions from the traditions of the craft. " Le
genre Raparlier " consists in representing on
the cover of a volume some typical subject
or scene in the book, by an entirely original
process. The book, after being covered in
morocco, has the design roughly modelled
on it by means of small sculptor's tools made
in metal instead of boxwood. These tools
are heated, by which means the leather is
slightly burnt and shadowed in greater or less
degree. Inlays of other colours are then ap-
plied of various thicknesses, according to the
relief required, and the modelling proceeds,
the whole being kept very wet until it is
sufficiently worked up. A certain amount
of acid or colouring matter is added, if re-
quired, to give vigour to the design, which,
when completed, is perfectly hard and can
be subjected to the ordinary pressure. M.
Raparlier was a pupil of the Ecole des Beaux
152
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
AN EFFECT BY RAPARLIER
Arts, and only a thorough training in design
and modelling could possibly give the ability
for this sort of work, which is more allied
to sculpture than to anything else one can
think of. The designs on each side of the
cover are always different and not one is ever
repeated. The artist's exhibit at the Ex-
153
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
position Internationale du Livre in 1892,
for which he obtained a gold medal, attracted
much curious attention on account of its
undoubted originality, and of the obvious
artistic feeling shown in the harmony of
colour displayed throughout. Born at Paris
in 1857 he died prematurely in 1900. No
doubt in time the bizarre and rococo would
have appealed to him less if his clients had
not continued to demand the " genre Rapar-
lier " in its most extreme manifestations.
His technique is both novel and interesting,
and might with advantage be applied to a
more restrained and classical style.
We have been dealing hitherto with
binding of a special class — morocco work
hand-tooled in all its variety — but it would
not be fair to close this account of modern
French binders without mentioning a type
of binding which the French have made
peculiarly their own, and which is now as-
sociated with the name of M. E. Carayon.
This is known as "cartonnage a la Bradel."
Supposed to be of German origin, it bears
'54
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
the name of the binder who first adopted it
in France. It has always been considered
bJMgjs; \pjjiL- "
:/
: j
V V'
;' i' i
f.
V
^V"^',^ *'t4;
"1: <
* ■ / *
[•JWA ^S^ /V-:?^:
A BINDING BY RAPARLIER FOR •■ HERODIAS
as binding of a purely provisional nature for
books which it was proposed at some time
or another to habit in a more costly man-
155
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ner. The main features of such a binding
are that the sections are not " sawn in " at
the back and remain intact, being sewed up-
on ribbon, that the edges are left untouched
by the plough, and that the boards of the
book instead of being made one with the
back and being fixed in the joint, are re-
moved a certain distance from the back,
leaving a hollow in which the covering of
paper, silk or vellum is impressed. This
hollow is peculiarly suited to vellum work
on account of its stiffness, but not less to
thin materials from the opposite reason that
these are liable to give way at the hinge,
when the board works sharply, as it does in
the ordinary mode of binding. M. Cara-
yon's work has, then, for its aim the preser-
vation of the book, so that it loses none of
its value on changing hands, and the pur-
chaser gets it in exactly the same state as
when it was first issued. It may be men-
tioned in passing that this is the only style
which the French allow to open perfectly
flat, the only really comfortable form of
156
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
binding we get from them, but that is a
natural idiosyncrasy which it seems that we
must accept.
Carayon, born in 1843, started in life as
a soldier, continued as a decorative painter,
and chance having made him subsequently
take to binding, he has ever since found
consolation for chronic rheumatism, which
completely disables him, in a love of books
and a real passion for all the details of deli-
cate and exquisite binding. The choice
editions of M. Pelletan, a publisher who is
perhaps more of an artist than any other in
Paris, have provided plenty of material for
the painted vellum covers which is one of
the styles that Carayon has made and kept
entirely his own. It is this style that we
have chosen for reproduction, but unfortu-
nately it is very difficult to reproduce from
the extreme fineness of the line work
and the equally delicate character of the
colouring. Pen and ink sketches and water
colour drawings have been made by well-
known artists such as A. Robaudi, Louis
159
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Morin, and Henriot on the vellum covers he
has prepared for the purpose, and thus will
go down to future generations as some of
the most important book treasures of the
time. He is the only binder who has suc-
ceeded in his treatment of vellum in keep-
ing the spotless freshness which constitutes
its chief charm. To the exhibition of bind-
ings at Brussels he contributed not less than
eighty volumes.
The nature of M. Carayon's work enables
him to use all varieties of material that the
most eccentric amateur can imagine ; quaint,
old-fashioned papers and cloths, silk brocades,
snake and crocodile skins, Japanese leathers,
with their striking colours and curious
designs. These reliures de fantaisie, in whole
or half bindings, are of endless diversity, and
are carried out with great taste and with a
delicate freshness of handling that finds no
parallel elsewhere. M. Carayon does plenty
of morocco work as well, gilt by skilful fin-
ishers, but even then it is always put through
in the same way, the book left untouched
1 60
SOME FRENCH BINDERS OF TO-DAY
and the boards not laced in. His varied
exhibit at the Exposition de Livre in 1892
gained for him a gold medal. Such work,
it is needless to say, can be entrusted to but
few hands and those carefully and leisurely
trained to delicate manipulations, and the
workman who has been the shortest time
with M. Carayon has been helping him for
more than fifteen years.
We cannot do better than quote his own
explanation of his success, a success, it may
be added, not sufficiently recognised outside
his own country : " Le secret de mes succes,
c'est tout simplement que je suis un amour-
eux du livre, que mon metier me plait, et
que je ne saurais a aucun prix massacrer un
volume, fut il le plus infime."
It may seem to some a very trivial matter
to observe the eternal warfare between the
classics and the moderns carried out upon
this miniature battlefield of the decoration
of book covers. But it is really of interest
not only to the book lover with whose spe-
cial province it deals, but to the interested
161
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
observer of all progressive movements, for
it is but another instance of an oft-repeated
fact that no department of art or letters es-
capes that collision from time to time in its
evolutionary development, and that from
such shock of alternating principles vitality
most surely ensues.
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
VI
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
MAY as well state at the
beginning of this paper that
I have a distinct object in
writing it. It is to call the
attention of those who have
under their control commercial orpubHshers'
bindings to the way in which that class of
work was decorated in the early days of
books and bindings. In fact, I hold a brief
on this occasion for the stamp or block,
worked in a press and not by hand.
It is very much the fashion now a days
to speak slightingly of all work that is
not done by the hand. The craftsman is
in fashion, and to say that a thing is
stamped is, to many persons, synonymous
165
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
with saying that it is inferior, and not worth
the consideration of those who have taste
and can distinguish good things from bad.
The hand of the worker must, it is consid-
ered, be traced on all the details of his work,
or else it is unworthy of notice.
Now I consider this to be a mistake.
The hand of the craftsman is very well if
it is also the hand of the artist, but it is far
better, in my humble opinion, to have, as
decoration for certain purposes, stamped
work designed by an artist but mechani-
cally produced, than to see the irregulari-
ties which are supposed, and often supposed
rightly, to give value to hand work, when
they are associated with decoration that is
meanly conceived.
A few remarks may be acceptable by
way of preparation for the study of the
particular class of bindings dealt with in
this paper.
We are occupied, then, to-day, with the
second stage in the history of books and
their makers, the stage of the gradual mul-
166
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
tiplication of manuscripts through the uni-
versities and the encouragement they gave
to learning, and of the earliest printed
books. The first stage is naturally that of
the earlier manuscripts, when these were
comparatively few in number and as far as
binding is concerned, remained undeco-
rated ; unless, when containing the manu-
scripts of the Gospels or the service books
of the church they were clothed sumptu-
ously with all the art of the goldsmith and
the jeweler.
Towards the end of the twelfth century
the church was gradually ceasing to be the
centre of enlightenment, and it is to the
newly organised universities that we now
turn for the control of the higher education
and the diffusion of knowledge. The term
stationarii first appears in Bologna in 1259,
and it was their function to manifold and
keep in stock a sufficient number of manu-
scripts authorized by the university and to
hire them out to students. It is on these
manuscripts that the earliest stamped bind-
167
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ings are found. When the universities ex-
panded, the custom gradually grew up of
purchasing instead of hiring the texts, and
the stationarii developed into librarii. They
were under the strict censorship of the
university, who fixed their commissions and
controlled the circulation of their wares.
The first of the stamped bindings here
illustrated prevailed from the twelfth to
the fifteenth centuries and disappeared
shortly after the introductionof goldtooling.
The earliest are of course on manuscripts,
but the later ones are on what we should
call in these days publishers' bindings and
are on the early printed books.
They do not belong to any one country
in particular but are to be found every-
where except in Italy, whose ungilt bindings
corresponding to that period were the
" cable " or "rope-work " patterns of which
I have spoken in another paper.
The earliest stamped bindings were with-
out gold and are the earliest forms of orna-
mented leather covers. The decoration is
168
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
composed of dies, in many instances of great
beauty, and the earliest of all are of a very
simple character.
Mr. W. H. James Weale, from his re-
DURHAM BINDING OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY
searches among the cathedral and conven-
tual libraries of Europe, has elicited the
fact that in the twelfth century England
was at the head of all foreign nations as
regards these bindings.
Winchester, London, Durham, Oxford
169
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and York all produced stamped bindings of
great merit. This, of course, is a very inter-
esting point to us, who have to admit that,
as regards gold-tooled bindings, Italy was at
first preeminent and subsequently France.
DURHAM BINDING OK THE TWELFTH CENTURY
In the twelfth century, then, England
had a distinct school of binding that even *
influenced foreign art, for the stamps on |f
certain Durham manuscripts sent abroad
were imitated there.
170
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
Durham, says Mr. E. Gordon Duff, was
especially noteworthy for the style of bind-
ing, and there are still preserved in its
cathedral library a series of books bound
for Bishop Pudsey, toward the end of the
twelfth century — perhaps the finest monu-
ments of this class of work in existence.
The sides of these book covers were tooled
with a number of small stamps or dies of
various shapes, cut in intaglio so as to leave
an impression like a seal, the exact opposite
of the procedure in gold tooling. These
stamps, in themselves of much beauty and
delicacy, were arranged formally but with
great variety and a fine sense of effect.
On the great Bible in four volumes
which Bishop Pudsey had written and bound
for him in the Benedictine house overlook-
ing the Wear, no less than fifty-one dies
are used, twenty-seven of which occur on
the first volume alone. They represent men
on horseback, birds, beasts and fishes and
fabulous animals of many descriptions.
Formal flower patterns are found as well,
171
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and the interlaced chain work we mostly
associate with early Venetian books. We
do not know for certain how these dies
were worked, but they were probably built
up in a frame, and not impressed separately.
It is always difficult to get satisfactory
reproductions of ungilt bindings, and the
fact that these early books are much worn
naturally increases the difficulty. The first
two illustrations are from the Durham books
just described. In all known examples of
this early English work, an outer border of
lines of stamps formed a parallelogram, the
centre being filled either with other paral-
lelograms or circles or segments of circles.
This use of a circular ornament, says Mr.
Duff, was so common that some of the dies
were cut wider at the top than at the bot-
tom, like the stones in the arch of a bridge,
so that when fitted side by side they would
form circles or parts of a circle, and in the
same way many of the oblong dies were
curved.
From the twelfth century onwards, there
172
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
%
DIAGRAMS SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF ORNAMENT ON THE DURHAM BOOKS
were, no doubt, professional binders other
than monks, though there was no organized
trade association of the kind in England
till the beginning of the fifteenth century,
173
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
when there was in London a guild of text-
writers — or limners, as they were called —
and binders; and in 1422 the two crafts
were enrolled as separate guilds. In Ger-
many, France and the Netherlands trade
guilds were far more highly organized, and
it is to the Netherlands that we must turn
for the chief further developments in this
class of stamped bindings. For in England,
after the Durham and Winchester work,
there was little of importance done for some
two centuries, owing to the degradation of
the monasteries and the decline of scho-
lastic literature.
The next development in the history of
stamped bindings was initiated by the Neth-
erlands. The invention of the panel stamp
about the middle of the fourteenth century
was an important one, for it enabled the
side of a small book to be decorated at
once. After the invention of printing in
1454 it became of almost universal applica-
tion to the small books that came to be
issued in increasing numbers. The strict-
174
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
ness of the Netherlandish trade guilds en-
abled the binder to protect both his trade
mark and his designs — a privilege we may
well envy in these days of unacknowledged
pilfering.
Printing, after its first discovery, spread
quickly over the whole of Europe, as the
dates of the establishment of the various
printing presses show. Beginning in Ger-
many in 1454, it reached Italy in 1465,
carried thither by Germans. It is to be
found in Paris and the Low Countries about
1470, and in England a few years later,
Caxton's Press being set up in 1477.
Thus the multiplication of books took
place very rapidly, and with the increase in
their number came certain very obvious and
necessary modifications in their binding,
which we may summarize thus : —
Firstly. It became no longer possible to
give them costly coverings, such being re-
served henceforth for devotional or other
books of a special character.
Secondly. It was necessary to produce bind-
*75
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ings more speedily, and after this period they
fell naturally into two divisions — trade
bindings and private bindings. For, while
in the very earliest times of printing the
printer was also a stationer and bookseller,
and in the latter capacity bound his own
books, the two trades naturally soon became
distinct. The binding was then done en-
tirely by the stationer-bookseller, to whom
the printer supplied copies of his books in
sheets. Thus trade bindings, between 1500
and 1550, become an important series, for
the stationer -booksellers, besides binding
specially for private collectors, issued a cer-
tain number of books in coverings of their
own invention.
Thirdly. With the invention by Aldus of
the smaller size of book, wooden boards
were no longer essential, and Aldus, himself,
was the, first to disuse them. Boards made of
paper or vellum pasted together under
great pressure now took the place of wood.
With the introduction of printing, manu-
scripts ceased to retain their former value,
176
-•.':'-•.-• .'•'.* -V>^^-#3
BINDING BY BOLLCAERT
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
and many were ruthlessly destroyed to make
the boards for the new bindings. The most
valuable vellum sheets were used for the
purpose, and by soaking these boards very
important information concerning early
manuscripts has since been discovered.
A little later, we find the same thing
repeated with the cast-off sheets of the
printer used in the same way to make
boards for the binder, and thus, again, many
valuable links in the chain of evidence con-
cerning our early printers have been brought
to light.
The panel stamp was developed in dif-
ferent ways according to the genius of the
country that adopted it. In the Nether-
lands it is generally formal, and the accom-
panying illustration represents a very usual
type. The spirals of foliage contain birds or
beasts of a grotesque kind, and round the
edge of the panel runs a motto or text with
which is associated the name of the binder.
In this way have come down to us the names
of Ludovicus Bloc, Johannes Bollcaert, Joris
179
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
deGavere, MartinusVulcanius, and others in
such legends as the following:
mm
■•■I :^.-v*$
. ■ \
■
4t>.
PANEL STAMP OF THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
" I, Ludovicus Bloc, bound this book
honestly to the praise of Christ"; " Joris
de Gavere bound me in Ghent ; let all the
1 80
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
holy angels and archangels of God pray for
us"; "Be diligent although you can look
PANEL STAMP OF ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
at the art of Martinus Vulcanius.,> Our ex-
ample is on a book by Johannes Bollcaert
with the legend : " To the glory of Christ,
181
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
FRENCH PANEL STAMP
I, Johannes Bollcaert, honestly bound this
book."
The pictorial panel stamp does not seem
to have been in favor ii\ the Netherlands
so much as in France, but there are some
specimens of extremely fine execution.
[82
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
One in particular has the initials B. K. and
on one side the Adoration of the Magi and
on the other the Annunciation. Other
Netherlandish panel stamps represent the
entry into Jerusalem, the scourging of
Christ, the baptism of Christ, and St.
George and the Dragon.
In France pictorial stamps were of great
variety and occasionally of great beauty.
The best known are the acorn stamps of
Jehan Norins, and two others by him rep-
resenting the vision of the Emperor Augus-
tus (ara coeli) and St. Bernard with a bor-
der containing the Sibyls, all signed either
with initials or with his name in full.
Andre Boule used panels of the Crucifixion
and the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, the
latter subject being used by many other
binders as well.
The number of fine French panel stamps
is very large and a most interesting illus-
trated monograph could be made on them
and on the Netherlandish bindings of the
same character. Unfortunately they do not
183
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
reproduce well in process work, for the relief
is naturally much worn ; but when shown
in a lantern they are far more effective than
might be supposed.
The Norman binders of Rouen and Caen
produced many stamps of English design, in
consequence of the large number of service
books that they doubtless bound as well as
printed for the English market. The names
have come down to us of Jean Moulin,
who used panels of a strikingly decorative
kind, some seven or eight of which are in
existence containing a punning allusion to
his name of " Miller,' ' J. Richard, J. Hu-
vin, R. Mace, who used, among others, a
panel of the Annunciation, and Denis Roce,
whose bindings contain figures of four
&**t- saints ; the names of all these binders ex-
cept the last are to be found upon the covers.
Among the many fine French stamps
which well deserve a more exhaustive
treatment than they have hitherto received,
one stands out preeminent for beauty and a
classic treatment of an oft-repeated motive.
184
>
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
It is that of Alexandre Alyat, a Paris sta-
tioner of about 1500, who used a large
BINDING BY JEHAN NORINS
stamp with the figure of Christ and the
emblems of the Passion. It may be seen
on a book in the Aberdeen University
Library. Stamps with this figure are
185
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
always known as the Image of Pity, and to
my mind this example is quite the most
beautiful of all that are extant.
It must, of course, be borne in mind that
PANEL OF THE IMAGE OF PITY
all these stamped bindings after the mid-
dle of the fifteenth century, were trade
bindings, necessitated by the invention of
printing and consequent multiplication of
books.
186
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
In the earliest days after that invention,
as has been mentioned the printer was
sometimes a stationer and bookseller as well,
and in that capacity bound his own books ;
very soon, however, the two trades became
distinct and binding was done by the sta-
tioner alone.
Rich private collectors, however, con-
tinued to have their books bound espe-
cially for them ; but the stamped work on
printed books under present consideration
was entirely upon trade bindings.
We must not omit to mention German
ungilt bindings of this period of which
there were two distinct styles, /. e. cuir
bouilli and stamped work. Before the fif-
teenth century, the most noteworthy bind-
ings produced by Germany were the hand-
tooled leather ones ; particularly those
worked in a process called cuir bouilli, in
which the leather was first cut with a knife
and then raised in relief; later on the back-
ground was diapered down to cause the
relief, but in the real cuir bouilli the
187
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
leather was always cut first. Nuremberg
was especially celebrated for these wrought
POSTILLA FRATRIS THOME DE AQUINO IN JOB. ESSLINGEN, 1474
leather bindings; many of which were of
great artistic effect, and no two of which
were exactly alike. Two examples of cuir
1 88
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
bouilli, a technique that has been much re-
produced of late and particularly by M.
Gruel of Paris, are given in illustration.
One is on a book printed at Esslingen in
RAINERIUS DE PISA, PANTHEOLOGIA. BASLE, I475
1474. Mr. Weale states that the repre-
sentations of animals on this binding are
copied from those on the playing-cards
engraved by the master E. S. of 1466. The
other is on a Pantheologia by Rainerius de
189
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Pisa, Basle, 1475, a most beautiful specimen
of this cut work, and both are in the British
Museum.
The first German stamped leather bind-
ings after the fifteenth century generally
had their ornament planned on a frame-
work of intersecting vertical and horizontal
bands, the field within being divided by
ruled diagonal lines into lozenge-shaped
compartments.
"Among the most important binders of
Germany at this time," says Mr. E. Gordon
Duff, " is John Richenbach of Geislingen.
His bindings — as a rule, of white pigskin —
are dated from 1467 onwards, and bear
full inscriptions of his name as binder, date
of binding and very often the name of the
person for whom the book was bound.
Johannes Vogel used some delicate stamps,
amongst them a curious half-length figure
playing on a lute. He bound the copy of
the Mazarin Bible now in Eton College
Library, and also another copy of the same
book sold at the Brayton Ives sale in New
190
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
York. Anthony Koburger of Nuremberg,
one of the most important printers and
stationers of the fifteenth century, bound
his books in a very distinctive manner. He
gave up the use of small dies and covered
the side with a design made up of large
tools." He also painted the title of the
book in gold upon the top of the obverse
cover. Unfortunately it is impossible to
reproduce any of these pigskin books, for,
yellow with age, they present no contrast
whatever in photography.
We must pass on to the account of the
panel stamp in England, to which likewise
the previous remarks as to trade bindings
apply. With the introduction of printing
into England, there was a great influx of
foreign craftsmen, so that the distinctive
style of English work, which we saw in the
earlier centuries on the Durham books, was
destroyed.
From the Low Countries, the Rhenish
towns, Normandy and Paris, there came a
constant stream of printer-stationers, from
i9i
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
the reign of Richard III (1484) onwards.
At first they paid only periodical visits to
London, Oxford, Cambridge, York, and
towns of importance, but seeing business
prospects were good, they took up their
abode in England. They even brought with
them their stamps, and carried out their
work according to the traditions of their
own guild.
Books bound during the reign of Henry
VII and the earlier part of Henry VIII are
decorated according to the German, Nether-
landish or Norman fashion. Many foreign
stamps were bought and brought over after
the death of their owner ; others- were prob-
ably engraved abroad for the English market.
Caxton when he returned to England from
Bruges in 1476 and hired a shop in the
Sanctuary at Westminster, no doubt brought
his stamps with him, and used them in the
style which he had learned abroad. His bind-
ings, always of leather, were ruled with diag-
onal lines and the diamond-shaped compart-
ments filled with stamps of dragons and
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
flowers, very similar to a stamp used by a con-
temporary binder at Bruges. Unfortunately
very few of his books have come down to us
in their original covers. Upon his death,
1495, these stamps passed to his successor
Wynkyn de Worde, who used them till the
beginning of the sixteenth century.
At Oxford only does there seem to have
been any work of distinctively English
character. At the early Press then under
the direction of Theodore Rood of Cologne
in partnership with Thomas Hunte an
English stationer, we get the dies of foreign
design and supplied possibly by Rood, com-
bined after the manner of the Winchester
and Durham bindings of the twelfth cen-
tury.
In 1484 Richard III, who, while Duke
of Gloucester had encouraged printing, pro-
vided that no statute should act as a hind-
rance for bringing into the country "any
manner of books written or imprinted. "
This act further encouraged the influx of
foreign printers and remained in force till
193
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
the twenty-fifth year of Henry VIII's reign,
1534, when it was repealed and another
Act passed forbidding any but English sub-
jects to sell bound books within the realm.
The result of this was that a great many
foreign craftsmen obtained letters of natur-
alization and remained in the country.
We cannot tell exactly when the panel
stamp was introduced into England. The
earliest known one is on a loose cover in
the library of Westminster Abbey, and has
the arms of Edward IV. It has no binder's
stamp.
Frederic Egmondt and Nicholas Le-
compte, among the first stationer-book-
sellers who came to England as early as
1493, had panel stamps of considerable
interest. Lecompte's was an arabesque
floral pattern of foreign design. Egmondt's
were two in number; a Tudor rose in the
centre of a panel surrounded by vine leaves,
and a copy of the printer's device of Philippe
Pigouchet, of Paris, a wild man and woman
standing oil either side of a tree, and sup-
194
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
porting a shield bearing Egmondt's mark
and initials. The first named, /. e. the
Tudor rose, was a favourite stamp of the
time and used by Pynson (1493 to 152^)
but Egmondt's stamp is distinguished by an
arabesque floral border bearing his initials
and mark.
Only two specimens of Egmondt's panels
are known, one in Caius College, the other
Corpus College, Cambridge. Both have
on the reverse a panel containing three rows
of arabesque and foliage surrounded by a
border having ribbons in the upper and
lower portions inscribed with the names of
the four Evangelists.
In England the development of the panel
stamp was mainly heraldic. Bindings con-
taining the royal arms with supporters and
different applications of the Tudor rose and
other Tudor emblems are too well known
to need reproduction.
Some ten binders appear to have used
some form of these stamps from the num-
ber of the different initials found upon them.
19s
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
One of these panels contained the royal
arms supported by a greyhound and dragon
— supporters discarded in 1528 — the other
a large Tudor rose supported by angels.
Round the rose run two ribbons bearing
the motto " Haec rosa virtutis de coelo
missa sereno eternum florens regia sceptra
feret." The Durham Library has- a book
with the two stamps contained on one
panel, and there are many different varia-
tions. The most important binders using these
Tudor emblem stamps were John Reynes,
Henry Jacobi and Julian Notary, whose
bindings are always signed. Reynes had
another stamp besides the above, very like
a contemporary wood engraving in the
Book of Hours printed by Thielman Kerver
representing the instruments of the Passion
arranged heraldically upon a shield with
supporters and the inscription below
" Redemptoris mundi arma."
Although pictorial panels were not so
largely used in England as abroad, the An-
nunciation in different forms was not infre-
196
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
PANEL OF ST. NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN
quent, while St. George slaying the dragon
and St. Michael and St. George, may also
be found. The best specimens of this Eng-
lish work are now well pictured in the vol-
ume that appeared in 1895 on "English
Bookbindings in the British Museum/' by
Mr. W. Y. Fletcher. The illustration given
is from a binding by Nicholas Speryng, a
Cambridge stationer, who, with a primary
allusion to his Christian name had a design
of St. Nicholas restoring to life the three
pickled children.
197
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Stamped work seems to have followed
the apparently inevitable law of artistic fit-
ness followed by subsequent degradation.
PANEL WITH THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE PASSION
Towards the end of the sixteenth century
the blocks became poor and debased, the
medallion heads on the panels used by God-
frey, Nicolas Singleton and others being
i98
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
very typical of the complete disappearance
of all that was vigorous and effective in the
best days of the stamp.
We have now passed in review the differ-
ent types of work stamped without gold,
but, before concluding with a few practical
remarks as to the essentials of a satisfactory
stamp we must briefly mention the gilt
stamped bindings, many of which were, in
their way, entirely satisfactory.
Contemporaneous with Francis I and
Grolier, for whose bindings he probably de-
signed the letters, is Geoffroy Tory, who
produced the most important stamped work
in gold ever done by any stationer.
Born in 1485, he was educated in Italy
and then set up at Paris as printer, book-
seller and binder. The stationer-booksellers
of France had issued many stamped bindings
of considerable interest, but it was, no doubt,
the influence of Italy that enabled Geoffroy
Tory to achieve his remarkable results.
We have no time to do more than de-
scribe his bindings, but the woodcuts which
199
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
he drew for the books that he printed are
well worth study. Indeed, the books that
issued from his Press as regards printing,
illustration and binding, are among the
most interesting of a period in which the
highest artistic qualities went to the mak-
ing of books in all their detail. The stamps
that he designed for his book covers are
arabesque work, of which the Italian origin
is very apparent. Our example is from a
Petrarch in the British Museum, and it is
a most graceful instance of pure Renaissance
work.
In the lower part of the panel and form-
ing part of the arabesques is to be seen the
sign of the broken pitcher, or " pot casse."
This sign is first found in a woodcut at the
end of a Latin poem published in 1523 on
the death of his little daughter Agnes. In
this woodcut the vase, pierced by a wimble
or auger, stands chained upon a closed book.
This wimble, called " toret" in French is
probably a punning mark on his name, for
it was always in the form of a T and was
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
OPERE DEL PETRARCHA. VINEGIA, 1 525
also used by engravers. The device designed,
no doubt, in allusion to the death of his
child, is explained by him in his book
" Champfleury," a treatise on the proportion
of ancient letters, in which the woodcuts
are especially fine.
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
It is worth while to read this explanation
in the original quaint and charming French,
full as it is of the particular flavour of the
Renaissance. We see the religious senti-
ment modified by the Greek mind as that
appeared in the new learning, the associa-
tions of another world mingled with a kind
of regretful consciousness of that new birth
to things of the senses which the classic re-
vival had brought about. These are char-
acteristics that we find here and again in
many of the Renaissance writers, and that
give to the literature of that period its pecu-
liar and subtle attraction. In plain English,
his explanation of the sign is as follows:
The broken pitcher is our body, which is a
vessel of clay ; the wimble is fate, which
pierces alike both strong and weak; the
book with three chains and locks signifies
that after death our body is sealed by the
three fates ; the flowers in the pitcher are
the virtue we possess in life. Geoffroy
Tory's bindings are exceedingly scarce, but
the Bibliotheque Nationale possesses three,
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
one exceedingly fine, having the pitcher
pierced by the wimble and two birds at the
top among the scroll work.
For the most part, commercial binding
LYONNESE STAMPED BINDING, I55I
in the sixteenth century was a mere repro-
duction of the styles . chosen by collectors
for work done to their order. With the
adoption of details made for execution by
hand, but then united with mechanical reg-
ularity to the large plaque, the decadence of
the stamp was practically assured.
203
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
But for the brief period during the last
half of the sixteenth century, commercial
work had a really independent artistic ex-
istence, and consequently, as far as gold
i
' ' ':
•
■
LYONNESE STAMPED BINDING, 1 5 54
stamped bindings are concerned, was at its
best. The Lyons work is the only work
of its kind of which one can say that it
contains a distinct feeling of what should
differentiate stamped from hand work.
Even here there is much that is unsuitable,
204
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
but it is possible to select from among the
quantity of the little Lyonnese books still in
existence some really admirable specimens
of block work, mainly stamped on calf.
LYONNESE STAMPED BINDING, 1575
Some of the Lyons binders used very fine
stamps. We find those that show the azured
corner and centre pieces which originated
in Venice but were largely used in France;
while others reproduce the painted inter-
laced work with or without the Venetian
205
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
flower tools we saw in the papers on Ital-
ian bindings. One can see how they copied
the handwork patterns and yet often with
such difference, as, in the best examples,
LYONNESE STAMPED BINDING
made those patterns more suitable to a
stamp or block.
It is interesting to see how commercial
work followed in the footsteps of artistic
binding throughout successive periods, repro-
ducing the best designs, and, later on, when
206
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
the art became decadent, also the worst.
But we have not time to follow it further.
The little Lyons printed volumes of the
sixteenth century, mostly duodecimo, of
which the examples given are from the
library of the late Mr. Charles Elton, are
those alone on which this commercial work
had really independent artistic manner. They
show that because a design is stamped from
a block it need not be the less admirable,
after its kind, than work that is hand-
wrought.
We have now briefly glanced at the three
main classes of stamped work as applied to
bindings from the earliest time — /. e., the
Durham and English school, generally of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; the
panel stamp formal, pictorial and heraldic
of the Netherlandish, French and English
schools of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries ; and the Lyonnese gilt stamps of
the sixteenth century.
And it may be said at once that the first
lesson we learn from their consideration is
207
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
that stamped work has its special laws as re-
gards fitness and beauty of which the chief
is that it should not attempt to reproduce
the effect of the hand. Designing for
block work is a thing apart: it is far more
akin to the art of the medalist than to that
of the mere designer, and it must be borne
in mind that the impression received from
a stamp should be obtained at one blow and
not built up piece by piece according to the
mental habit when grasping mere surface
decoration.
A very curious binding was shown at the
exhibition at the Burlington Fine Arts Club
in 1 891, evidently from a block, colour be-
ing introduced later. It has a bold design
of caryatides supporting a framework. So
far as I am aware, it is unique of its kind,
and is here reproduced as full of interest
to the designer of stamps.
It appears to me that the present decora-
tion of publishers' bindings is upon wrong
lines. The blocks are made to impress
the cloth or leather in the strict sense
208
EARLY STAMPED BINDINGS
of the term — not cut in intaglio, so as
to give relief. So in most cloth work,
not only are many of the designs made up
BINDING SHOWN AT THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB
of small details, such as could be equally
well carried out by the binder with his
ordinary tools, but they are blocked flat,
and have no relief whatever. As a result
they only differ from hand-worked patterns
by having a mechanical precision, which, in
itself, is valueless.
209
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
I cannot but think that if some pattern-
maker for book covers were to glean in-
spiration from a careful examination of the
blocks on some of the old work above
spoken of, he might arrive at a new de-
parture as regards publishers' bindings. On
such work a finely cut stamp, impressed
without gold, would give more artistic and
satisfying results than are to be found with
the present gaudy system of flat blocking
in gold and colour.
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
VII
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
SUPPOSE more has been
written about the Italian
Renaissance than about any
other period of history, ex-
cept, perhaps, that of Athens
under Pericles. But each time one is
brought face to face with it one is filled
anew with fresh wonder at the perfec-
tion attained by all the arts at that time
— a perfection as spontaneous and sudden
as it was brief in duration.
The period of the best Italian bindings
begins with the time that Aldus set up his
Press at Venice in 1494 and ends with the
middle of the sixteenth century. It was the
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
time then of the full Florentine Renaissance
— of Michael Angelo, Perugino and Leon-
ardo da Vinci in painting, of Benvenuto
Cellini and his exquisite work in gold and
silver, of Ghirlandajo, painter and jeweler
at Florence, of Lucca della Robbia and his
modelled terra-cotta, and all the majolica
work that has never been equaled. All the
crafts were, in fact, fine arts ; it was their
full flowering time, never to be repeated.
In going to any good museum with the
mind full of these things, one sees enough
to show that whether looking at architec-
ture or painting, or at sculpture and carv-
ing, or at metal and goldsmith's work, or
at pottery and cabinet-making, tapestry and
armor, or at the printing and binding of
books, it is all one — the full flower and
fruit are there, as the world's history goes,
of one hundred years at most.
It is not surprising, then, that at that
time binding, too, was a living art and not a
mere handicraft.
The impetus to books and their orna-
214
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
ments with which we are now concerned
came with the fall of Constantinople in
1453 and ^e influx of Greek scholars into
Italy that began the classic revival. The
delight in beauty and the joy of living
which is one of the characteristic notes of
Hellenism, was as a trumpet-call to throw
off the fetters to thought and feeling that
had existed up to that time. For hitherto
learning and civilization had centred in the
life of the church. The seal of its approval
or condemnation had been required in every
department of life, until the revival of learn-
ing brought about a new standard.
Henceforth all was to be changed. The
surroundings of life were to be adorned
from the greatest to the smallest, and cer-
tainly the books which had thrown open a
new world to an eager age were not least
in the scale of importance.
The origin of the art of impressing
leather with gold by means of hot tools
worked upon gold leaf has not yet been
traced. It is said to have been employed
215
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
in Syria as early as the thirteenth century.
It was certainly brought from the East and
may have been suggested by the ornament
of the manuscripts carried into Italy after the
fall of Constantinople in 1453. The actual
technique may have been introduced at
Venice by the Greek and Arab workmen
when attracted there through commercial
relations with the Levant and some of whom
we know were employed by Aldus at his
Press.
The earliest editions of the Greek and
Latin classics were printed by Aldus in the
italic type that he invented or rather that
he is supposed to have taken from the hand-
writing of Petrarch and that is always as-
sociated with his name. It is on these
volumes, the size of which (octavo) he
originated as well as the type, that gold
tooling in the proper sense of the term was
first employed in Italy.
Many Eastern inventions were acquired by
the Venetians in their traffic with the Le-
vant, and this may have been one of them,
216
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
as was certainly the recessed and lacquered
work employed on bindings during a short
period.
In this the boards were made of, or
coated with, some form of paper composi-
tion, that allowed the centres and corners
to be stamped out in sunk panels or shaped
compartments. The whole was then gen-
erally covered with a thinly-pared leather
and this was next coated with a coloured
lacquer and finally painted with arabesques
in gold. Both in the British and South
Kensington Museums in London you can
see examples of this work, which is purely
Italian and chiefly interesting from showing
the influence of the East. They are often
found with the lion of St. Mark painted on
the centre panel, and when suc'h is the case
seem to have been employed as the official
binding of the Statutes and Commissions of
the Venetian Senate. A very fine example
is given from a Harleian manuscript in the
British Museum, though unfortunately the
brilliancy of the red leather, coloured lacquer
217
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and gold is lost in reproduction. The sec-
ond example is also from the British Mu-
seum and can be seen in the show case
HARLEIAN MANUSCRIPT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
there. The South Kensington Museum
possesses a collection of stamps and tools
used by Persian workmen in the production
218
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
of such bindings in more recent times and
these show that each of the sunk panels was
formed by the impression of a single die.
PICCOLOMINI DELLA INSTITUTIONE MORALE. VENETIA, I560
But Eastern influence may also be traced
upon the Italian bindings during the last
half of the fifteenth century, to which we
219
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
are about to direct attention in this paper
and which are sometimes called Saracenic.
The designs on these bindings are largely
made up of the cable work or rope pattern,
COLLECTION OF PERSIAN TOOLS IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM
as it is named, the term coming no doubt
from the interlacings or reticulations being
put together in imitation of the twist of a
rope.
The knots are often made up into bor-
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
ARATI PHAENOMENA
ders between lines, the centre panel having
them ingeniously contained in a circle.
In the earliest work of this type the
" tooling'* is "blind/' that is to say, without
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
gold, and the spaces between the knots are
filled with small roundels.
The first illustration is of this kind and
represents a very well preserved book in
the British Museum — Arati Phaenomena, a
manuscript of the late fifteenth century.
The little roundels just mentioned in these
cable work designs were made of stamped
thin metal discs sometimes of gold but more
frequently of copper. The British Museum
possesses several books with such traces,
including the one here shown. Even when
entirely blind-tooled, the knots and inter-
lacements give great richness of effect, and
the possibilities of combination they con-
tain enable them to be applied to books of
all sizes with equally satisfactory results.
The Burlington Fine Arts Club at their
Exhibition in 1891, showed a considerable
number of books with this type of binding,
many of which are reproduced in their fine
illustrated catalogue. A special feature of
these bindings, apart from the design, is
that in addition to the two clasps on the
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
fore edge, they had two others at top and
bottom, traces of which you can see in the
present illustration. The boards were of
wood and frequently grooved down the
edge, a peculiarity copied no doubt from the
Greek manuscripts that came over after the
fall of Constantinople. This habit of groov-
ing the edges of the covers of Greek books
continued well into the sixteenth century.
It is to be found on many Aldine bind-
ings and also on some made for Henri II
of France.
These ungilt cable work designs have, to
my mind, a great charm. On the one
hand their absolute simplicity of motive
and their skilful application of very few de-
tails are, in themselves, attractive ; while on
the other we see them mostly disposed in
the two main schemes of decoration that
always seem to me to be most appropriate
to book-cover decorations, namely, the bor-
der and the panel.
There is one not infrequent treatment of
the panel in these books, a treatment that is,
223
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
perhaps, not confined to them, but is, at all
events, especially distinctive of Italian bind-
ings. It is the way in which the border
of the panel, instead of being merely carried
round, is repeated at the top and bottom, so
that the superior length of the book in re-
lation to its breadth, is duly emphasized,
with a consequent considerable distinction
in the design that it would not otherwise
possess.
The next step in this class of reticulated
patterns was the addition of gold, which
then for the first time was employed tech-
nically in the manner of the present day.
When used sparingly, as it was at first, it
proved a very happy innovation. It gave
great value, in an artistic sense, to the rest
of the work, and blind and gold tooling
were thus associated on some of the most
attractive books of the first half of the six-
teenth century.
The second illustration gives a simple ex-
ample of this combination, and is in every
way a type of binding frequently met with
224
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
HARLEIAN MANUSCRIPT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
at this date. It is on a manuscript in the
British Museum written in 151 5.
Of the value of blind, in combination
with gold, tooling, one can never be too ob-
225
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
servant. We all know the decorative effect
of a shadow. Sometimes by fire-light in a
room, a very commonplace interior will
have not only a sense of mystery but an
actual contrast of form and colour, caused by
the different parts of the different objects in
it being delicately contrasted. Some measure
of that effect is obtained by the darkened
lines and impressions of blind-worked tools,
which sometimes merely shadow the actual
border, as in the present example, and at
others are interwoven with the design.
A very rich example of the cable pattern
carried out entirely in gold may be seen on
a manuscript of Onosander belonging to the
early sixteenth century, which was owned
by Mr. William Morris and which I am per-
mitted to reproduce here. Had the letter-
ing been absent, or more in proportion to
the design, it would be an entirely happy
instance of the type of pattern known as
" the border within the border."
All these bindings belong to the time
when printing was about to make, or had
^^6
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
just made, its appearance in Italy, and be-
fore passing to the next type of bindings,
MANUSCRIPT OF ONOSANDER. CABLE PATTERN, IN GOLD :
OWNED BY MR. WILLIAM MORRIS
found on some of the earliest printed books,
it may be well to emphasize for a mo-
227
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ment the striking contrast presented be-
tween the book cover decoration we are
now considering and that of the contem-
porary stamped work of England and other
countries, to which I have devoted another
paper. In that work we have the decora-
tive block-stamp, of great beauty, certainly,
and frequently of symbolic interest, but
giving the decorative effect in solid mass,
and, as it were, at one blow.
The influence of eastern art in Italy
made for a different effect. In those early
Italian bindings the total impression is got
by a few simple elements skilfully arranged
in combination and repetition. From
this period dates the decoration of bindings
by means of small tools, with lines and curves,
such ornamental details being worked by
hand and kept subservient to the effect
of the whole, in a way never since sur-
passed.
We will pass now to the type of orna-
ment found on Aldine books, and those of
other printers who, like Giunta, of Flor-
228
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
CiESAR. COMMENTARIA, GIUNTA,
5'4
ence, imitated the characteristics of the
Aldine Press.
The British Museum possesses a Caesar
printed by Giunta in 1514 which is a most
perfect specimen of this class. The border
229
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
is made up of an exceedingly graceful
Aldine tool, which may be seen used in
different forms for a long time to come ;
and the panel, which encloses some knotted
'
'
iMsSJSfiJKik i«<
1
AGYy/:
1 ll
J:
T_ Vi 9*- * -•». i/^miaf
-
EURIPIDES. VENETIIS ALDUS, I503
work, is accentuated at the top and bottom
in the manner just referred to as essentially
characteristic of Italian bindings.
An instance of more lavish ornament, but
applied with equal simplicity and distinction,
is on a Euripides printed by Aldus in 1503
230
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
belonging to the late Mr. Charles Elton,
from whose collection all the illustrations
of this type of binding are drawn. We see
the leaves and the other solid ornaments
PONTANUS. VENETITS ALDUS, 1 509
that were used by Aldus in his printed
page and which play an important part in
the decoration of bindings for a century
and more. It is an instance of the earliest
style to be found on Aldine books which was
richer and more elaborate than the middle
231
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
style in which the pattern is almost severely
restrained, having for the most part merely
a panel of simple gold and blind lines with
solid ornaments at the angles.
LIVII HISTORIA. VENETHS ALDUS, I $20
Another illustration from a Pontanus
printed by Aldus in 1 509, will be sufficient to
emphasize this earlier Aldine style. Here
we have a very rich panel, full of luxuriant
scroll work, mingled with the same solid
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
tools as in the last, and its effect is greatly
enhanced by the border of plain leather.
Another example is from a Livy printed
in i 520, likewise by Aldus. Within a gold
BOCCACCIO. AMOROSA VISIONE VINEGIA,
531
border on the upper cover is the title T. L.
Decas IIII., on the lower, the figure of
Fortune holding out a sail with the initials
I. S. in gold. Such a figure is often found
on early Venetian bindings. The last
*33
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
illustration is on a Boccaccio of later date.
There is a freshness and lack of effort about
this and other samples of the same type,
that strike one as perhaps the happiest
characteristic of that which is altogether
entirely admirable.
We have seen enough, perhaps, now to
make us to form an opinion as to the lessons
to be drawn from the examples of early Ital-
ian binding. They are, I think, will be
agreed, mainly these : —
Firstly, a constant sense of the shape and
proportions of the thing to be decorated,
seen in the insistence on the border and
the panel as schemes of design.
Secondly, an equally fine sense of the value
given to ornament, by the unornamented
parts or untouched spaces of leather.
Thirdly, restraint in the matter of decora-
tive detail so that it is always kept in due
subordination to the effect of the whole.
These early craftsmen knew full well that
in matters of art, richness of effect is got
not by the multiplication of rich detail but
234
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
by the effective contrast of such detail with
a severe simplicity.
ii
We have no information as to the ar-
rangements made by Aldus for the bind-
ing of the books he printed. Possibly he
had a binder's shop in connection with his
Press. Certain it is that not only his type
but also his binding were imitated by Phil-
ippo da Giunta, the Florentine printer. So
that in speaking of Aldine styles it must be
borne in mind that they are to be found not
exclusively on the books printed by Aldus,
though they of course originated there. All
the finest early Italian bindings may, indeed,
be illustrated from the Aldine books, among
which there are three different styles. In the
preceding paper we have described the
earliest, which belongs to the close of the fif-
teenth and early part of the sixteenth cen-
tury, and which was richer than the second or
middle style, possibly on account of the
freshness of the discovery of the effect pro-
ass
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
// „;•>.-
PlI Nl SECVNDf
NATVAAtIS HJ
' /'
/
SECVNDA PAR
'.-
PLINH SECUNDI HISTORIA NATURALIS. VENETIIS, ALDUS, 1 535
duced by gold tooling. About 1520 we
meet with the second style, in which, instead
of enriched borders, we get the panels al-
236
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
TROGI POMPEII EXTERNA HISTORIC IN COMPENDIUM AB
JUSTINO REDACTS. VENETIIS, 1522
ready mentioned of simple gold and blind
lines with solid ornaments at the angles; the
fore-edge of the boards has strings or clasps,
*37
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
GRATIUS. HOC VOLUMINE CONTINENTUR POETAE TRES, ETC. ^
VENETIIS, I534
and if a folio there is an additional clasp at
top and bottom. We are able to illustrate this
style from the books bound for Grolier in
238
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
V «. - •/-*-- Jr-
w*
fe
tlJ^c^ mi;i
^^Trv-^
at
1
;
Jk
Of
gTTV
1
is
7si
B. THEODORETI IN S. PAULI EPISTOLAS COMMENTARIUS.
FLORENTI^, 1552
the British Museum. On the Aldine Eurip-
ides we saw the beginning of the framework,
the geometrical character of which is grad-
*39
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ually developed in this middle style, the
flowered tools being always solid and of
the same type as those we saw before.
The third style consists of the more elab-
ERIZZO. DISCORSO SOPRA LE MEDAGLIE ANTICHE
VENETIIS, 1559
orate interlaced patterns with which the
name of Grolier is particularly associated.
Here we get the geometrical basis in its
most rigid form, sometimes diversified with
the addition of the Aldine ornaments or
with Arabesque work, sometimes complet-
240
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
ing the design in itself. In very rare in-
stances we get a design made up entirely of
^NEiE. VICI IN VETERA IMPERATORUM ROMANORUM NUMISMATA
COMMENTARII. VENETIIS, I560
most graceful scroll work like that of the
11 Erizzo. Discorso sopra le medaglie antiche,"
pictured in M. Bouchot's " Reliures d'art
241
\
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
a la bibliotheque nationale," and of a bind-
ing in the British Museum illustrated next.
These are generally considered to belong
to the work executed for Grolier in
France. We get ajso a type specially Italian
in character, full of scroll work with the
Venetian flower tools we already know so
well. Sometimes the interlacings of the
framework are painted in different colours
by means of a lacquer, giving the effect of in-
lay, though the actual inlaying or onlaying
of different leathers only began much later.
As we have drawn our illustrations from
the bindings of the Aldine Press, and espe-
cially from books in the famous library of
the great collector Jean Grolier, a few
words as to his life and relations with Al-
dus may not be amiss in this connection.
His life belongs to the history of France,
but his bindings chiefly to Italy and the Al-
dine Press. The later work done for him
was, no doubt, executed in France, and so his
bindings might, in that sense, be treated of
amongst French bindings. It seems, how-
242
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
ever, more proper to discuss them mainly as
Italian; firstly, because their inception,
as a whole, was entirely Italian and the exe-
cution of a large number undoubtedly
by Italian workmen ; and secondly, because
it is possible that those bound after his
return to France, and which show a
certain refinement upon the earlier manner,
in the use of lighter tools, may have been
done, also, by Italian workmen, retained by
him in his house, to carry out instructions
according to his personal taste.
Grolier is so interesting a figure among the
princely scholars of an age when scholar-
ship was still an unworn grace, that it is dif-
ficult not to linger over his career and the
encouragement he gave to all the artists and
men of letters of his time. We cannot, how-
ever, do more now than show briefly how
he came to be so intimately connected with
the Italian Renaissance.
Born in Lyons in 1479, of a family that
originally came from Verona, at the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, he replaced
243
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
his father, in 1510, as Treasurer of the
Duchy of Milan, a province conquered by
Louis XII, and it was, probably, about that
time that he made the acquaintance of
Aldus. Milan subsequently revolted but was
re-united to France by Fran<pois I on his
accession, and in 1534, Grolier was sent by
Francpois I as Ambassador to Clement VII.
He could not have remained either at the
Court of Rome or as Treasurer of Milan
later than 1530, as about that time the
French troops left Italy and amicable re-
lations ceased between France and the Pope.
His relations with Italy thus lasted for a
period of twenty years. In 1537 he had
returned to Paris and was employed in the
Treasury there. And in 1 547 he was made
Treasurer General of France, a position he
held until his death in 1565.
Towards the end of his life he fell under
serious accusations relative to the discharge
of his public duties, but in 1 56 1 a court,
presided over by Christophe de Thou,
father of the great collector of that name,
244
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
and a friend of Grolier, annulled the legal
process against him. He appears neverthe-
less always to have had the confidence of
the king and to have kept his various posi-
tions in the royal service.
Such is a brief account of the outward
events of his life. As Treasurer of France,
he had among the many duties that fell to
that office the care of the palaces, chateaux
and domains belonging to the crown. Thus
he helped to establish the College de France
under Francois I and superintended many
architectural works like that of the Palace
of Chantilly. He invented a new coinage
under Henri II, helped thereto, no doubt,
by his own knowledge of antique medals.
Of these he had made an extensive collec-
tion on his travels, a collection subse-
quently bought by Charles IX and placed
at Fontainebleau, whence it seems to have
been pillaged during the wars of the Holy
League in 1576. Grolier's house, the Hotel
de Lyon, near the Bucy Gate, in Paris, con-
tained his library, composed of 3,000 vol-
245
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
umes of classical and Italian authors, no
doubt acquired mostly in Italy. Of these
about 350 have been traced. After his death
they were divided among his inheritors and
subsequently found their way into the chief
private collections of France.
In the discharge of his duties as Treas-
urer of the French army in Italy, Grolier
sometimes lived at Naples, but mostly in
Milan, whence he made frequent visits to
Venice. Aldus died in 15 15, leaving four
children, but all too young to direct the
printing establishment he had founded. For-
tunately its management was undertaken by
his father-in-law, Andrea Torresano d'Asola
and his two sons. At that time Grolier's re-
lations with the house were most intimate,
and in a letter to Fran9esco d'Asola, in
1 5 19, concerning a treatise by his friend
Bude, the foremost Greek scholar of the
time, upon ancient measures and moneys,
" De Asse," which he was having printed,
he writes thus: "This man's death has
caused me a very bitter sorrow, as much be-
246
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
cause learning has lost in him a very able
restorer as that I have been deprived of a
most affectionate friend; " and in the same
letter he makes remarks about the type,
paper and margin that he wanted for the
book mentioned, that show of how service-
able a kind was his patronage of the press.
The catalogues of his library incidentally
show the encouragement he gave to print-
ing, for more than one-third of the books
named in it are the production of the Al-
dine Press. Indeed, the indebtedness of Al-
dus and his family to their patron is fully
acknowledged in an edition of Terence, pub-
lished at Venice in 1 5 1 7, which contains a
Latin letter of dedication to Grolier, signed
by the same Fran9esco d'Asola, brother-in-
law of the elder Aldus. There are other
dedications to him of a somewhat similar
kind, and whenever they published a book,
several copies were set aside for him printed
either on vellum or on special paper.
Virgil appears to have been his favourite
author ; he owned at one time ten copies of
247
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
his works, including a very beautiful manu-
script and the earliest printed edition of
i486. Of the Aldine Virgil, printed in
eighths, in 1 527, he had five copies, three of
which he afterwards presented to friends as
his habit was. To Marc Laurin, Maioli,
the president de Thou, he made presents of
books, as may be seen from the inscriptions
in them. GeofFroy Tory, the French
printer, who designed some of the letters
for his bindings, Pithou and Claude du Puy
had similar gifts, and the custom of having
several copies of the same book may possi-
bly be thus explained. On nearly all Gro-
lier's books the pattern is so arranged as to
leave in the centre an open shield or lo-
zenge. On the upper cover, within the
lozenge occurs the title, on the lower there
is one of various legends. Sometimes it is
" Portio mea domine sit in terra viventium "
adapted from the fifth verse of the 142nd
Psalm, on others, " Tanquam ventus est vita
mea " from the seventh verse of the seventh
chapter of Job, " Custodit dominus omnes
248
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
diligentes se, et omnes impios disperdet,"
the twentieth verse of the 145th Psalm, and
"Quisque suos patimur manes " from the
743rd line of the sixth book of the iEneid.
Another motto, " JEque difficulter," is also
occasionally found and may be translated
" the golden mean is hard." This occurs
only on his earlier bindings, and is accom-
panied by the device of a hand coming out
of a cloud and striving to pull an iron bar
from the ground, possibly referring to some
special event of his life. Sometimes his arms
— az. three besants or in point, with three
stars arg. in chief — are stamped on the
covers either singly or emblazoned with
those of his wife Anne Britponnet.
The inscription on his bindings, IO.
GROLIERII ET AMICORUM, show-
ing that his books were intended for the
use of his scholar friends as well as himself,
has been a feature in his Library that has
always interested modern book-lovers. A
similar motto is, however, to be found on the
books of two other contemporary collectors,
249
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Maioli and Laurin, of whom I shall pre-
sently speak. This shows, perhaps, that
Grolier's generous notion of a Library was
not uncommon in those days ; or, it is possi-
ble, of course, that they may have acted
merely in direct imitation of his habit.
Grolier is a most striking example of the
fact that it is possible for book-collect-
ing to assure a man's title to fame, more
than any other occupation of his life. For
though he filled posts of the very highest
importance as statesman and financier,
though as scholar and antiquarian he lived
through the reigns of seven kings of France,
from Louis XI to Charles IX, his name
would have been forgotten, but for the books
which have come down to the present day
as witnesses of his taste in all the departments
of letters.
Next in importance to the bindings of
Grolier are those of Maioli. Tommaso Maioli
was an Italian book-lover, contemporary
with Grolier, of whom nothing is known
except that he was still living in 1555 and
250
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
that he enjoyed the friendship of Grolier.
In the Lyons Public Library are two books
stamped with the name and motto of Maioli,
in which Grolier has written his name and
motto. The books that remain to us from
his collection are few in number, compared
with those that we have of Grolier, but the
Bibliotheque Nationale has nine fine speci-
mens and there they may best be studied.
The designs on the bindings of both col-
lectors are very similar in character, but
those done for Maioli are distinctly more
florid. Those in the French collection are
distinguished for their flowing scroll-work,
the curves of which interlace freely with
the framework ; the whole character of the
ornament is less architectural and more free.
I am afraid, however, that the appropri-
ateness of these distinctions is difficult to see
on the two examples of Maioli books here
given, for they are hardly typical of the
free scroll-work just described as distinguish-
ing his bindings. They are both in the
British Museum. The first is on a copy of
251
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
C. JULII CjESARIS COMMENTARII. ROME, I469
Caesar's Commentaries; the second on that
unsurpassed example of early Italian print-
ing, the Hypnerotomachia of Francis Co-
lumna, printed in 1499. Ornamented
throughout with the most beautiful wood-
cuts, that book will always remain distinct-
ive of the Renaissance and the most superb
example of the Venetian Press. On both
these bindings one can see certain other
differences that distinguish them from Gro-
25a
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI. VENETIIS, 1 499
lier's. First, the frequent enrichment of
the field by dots — an extremely effective in-
novation and very rarely found on Grolier's
books. Second, the flowered tools which
are mingled with the scroll-work, instead of
being solid, are now almost entirely in out-
line, or else azured. It is only on one or
two of Grolier's books that the solid tools
are not found, while they are the exception
on those of Maioli. One sees that Maioli
253
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
followed the tradition of his time in having
a possessive motto stamped on his books,
which were evidently, like those of Grolier,
accessible to his friends. On the upper
cover is generally to be found the inscrip-
tion, THO. [or THOIVLE] MAIOLI ET
AMICORUM ; and on the lower cover :
INGRATIS SERVIRE NEPHAS (It is
useless to help the ungrateful) ; or the
less obvious latin legend: INIMICI MEI
MEA MICHI NON ME MICHI, of
which no satisfactory explanation has ever
been found, but of which a suggested trans-
lation runs : Mine enemies are able to take
mine from me, not me from myself (Pos-
sint inimici mei mea eripere, non me mihi).
There is also a cypher found on some
Maioli books, that has likewise never been
satisfactorily interpreted AEHILMOPST,
out of which his name can be formed, but
on so doing leaves other letters still un-
accounted for.
One peculiarity to be found on some
books bound for him, is, so far as I know, not
254
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
to be seen elsewhere. This consists in some
form of gold rubbed into the grain of the
leather, leaving an effect of bloom or fine
dust that is very pleasing. The Bibliotheque
Nationale has a very fine binding of this
nature, and there is a rather poor one in
the British Museum, but not on view.
Though most Maioli books are richly
ornamented, there are some simple ones
with a plain border and the name in a car-
touche or tablet. Of such is a well-known
example in the possession of Mr. Huth, and
figured in the Catalogue of the Burlington
Fine Arts Club.
There is only one other foreign collector
who, like Grolier and Maioli, used the motto
placing his library at the disposition of his
friends. This is Marc Laurin of Vatervliet,
near Bruges. Little is known of him except
that he came of an illustrious family, was a
scholar and antiquary, the friend of Eras-
mus, and that he succeeded Hubert Golt-
zius in a work of four volumes, published
at Bruges between 1563 and 1576, on the
255
• ^
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
illustrations of Greek and Roman history
afforded by the medals of antiquity.
The bindings bearing his name and motto
are very rare. There are four in the Biblio-
theque Nationale, all very plain — three in
black leather and one in brown. They
mostly have the motto: LAURINI ET
AMICORUM in a cartouche on the upper
cover, and the motto : VIRTUS IN AR-
DUO (courage in difficulty) on the lower,
also in a cartouche. The one here given
was exhibited in the Burlington Fine Arts
Club in i 891.
From the decorative point of view, it is
chiefly instructive as showing the distinction
that may be got from a few elements skil-
fully combined. In England Thomas Wot-
ton, father of Sir Henry Wotton, had many
books bound with a like motto.
Among the most beautiful Italian bind-
ings of the first half of the sixteenth century,
are those known as cameo bindings. The
impressions in relief were obtained from
dies cut in intaglio. The material of the
256
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
cameos consists of vellum, pressed damp
upon the die, the cavities being rilled with
some sort of composition to preserve the
CICERO. DE NATURA DEORUM. VENETIIS, 15^3
shape of the figures. After being transferred
to the centre of the leather binding, they
were sometimes, in the richer examples, gilt
and painted.
The first example shown here is on the
"Enchiridium Grammatices,, of Eufrosino
257
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Bonini, a book printed at Florence in
1 5 14. The cameo in high relief of Julius
Caesar is sunk into the boards, which are of
ANTHOLOGIA GR.SCA. FLORENTINE, I494
wood. In this way the projecting surfaces
of the cameo are spared any friction, and it
is still almost as fresh as the day it was
done. The whole book is blind - tooled.
The next is on a Greek Anthology, a first
edition on vellum, printed throughout in
258
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
BONINI. ENCHIRIDIUM GRAMMATICES. FIRENZE, I5I4
capital letters by Laurentius Franciscus de
Alopa at Florence in 1494. The border
leaves and circle are in gold, the rest is
259
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
blind work and the cameo head is that
of Alexander. The other side has a similar
head of Philip.
Probably the finest specimen of a cameo
binding is to be seen on a copy of De Medi-
cina of Celsus, which, like both those above
described, is in the British Museum, printed
by Filippo Pinzi at Venice in 1497, anc^>
later on, the property of Grolier. It is
covered in olive brown morocco. The upper
cover has an embossed medallion of Curtius
leaping into the abyss of the Forum at
Rome, and the lower cover another medal-
lion of Horatius Codes defending the Subli-
cian Bridge against the Etruscan army under
Lars Porsena.
In both these cameos, the modelling of
the figures is exquisite, and the elaboration
of detail in that on the lower cover extraor-
dinary for its size. Each medallion has
a green margin and is set in a panel. The
intervening spaces between the cameo and
the panel are filled with graceful decoration
of a corded or ribband pattern, impressed
260
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
CELSUS. DE MEDICINA. VENETIIS,
'A97
in blind and painted blue, in which are
introduced rings washed with gold, and red
and gold roundlets. This panel is sur-
rounded by a three-fold border of blind-
tooling, which extends to the edge of the
boards; and the whole, apart from the spe-
cial feature of the medallion, is a perfect
example of that simple but effective form
of decoration especially suited to book
shapes — the double border.
261
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
Mr. W. Y. Fletcher, for many years As-
sistant Keeper of the Printed Books in the
British Museum, has given much considera-
tion to this binding, and the result of his re-
searches shows the sort of work that is still
to be done in connection with Bindings,
and how such work may open outproblems of
a wider character. ("Bibliographica/'Vol. I.)
He tells us that the moulds from which
the medallions on the Celsus book were
made were cut in the first instance for the
purpose of casting plaques for the orna-
mentation of sword panels ; and a bronze
plaque representing Curtius leaping into
the abyss, evidently produced from the same
matrix as the medallion on this binding, is
shown in the department of British and
Mediaeval Antiquities in the British Mu-
seum. A similar one of Horatius defending
the bridge is preserved in the Museum at
Berlin. These plaques were designed and
executed by Giovanni, called Giovanni delle
Corniole, or Giovanni of the Cornelians,
from his skill in cutting stones. He was
262
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
born at Pisa about 1470, but lived the
greater part of his life at Florence, where
he is believed to have died in 151 6. In
this discovery, we have another instance of
that interdependence of the arts that is
always so interesting to observe, and of which
we see many instances in the history of
binding.
Perhaps the best known cameo bindings
are those associated with the name of De-
metrio Canevari, Physician to Pope Urban
VIII. He must have inherited the library
of books bound in this way, for they were
bound in Venice between 1540 and 1560,
whilst he was not born until 1559. They
remained intact in the Vico Lucoli at Genoa
until the year 1823. They are easily recog-
nised by their fine central oval stamp of
Apollo driving his two-horsed chariot over
the waves towards a rock on which is
Pegasus. The medallion is surrounded by
the Greek motto: OPSill KAI MH A0EIQ1
(Straightforward and not obliquely.) This
motto, like so many others on bindings, is
263
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
something of an enigma. It was probably
a reference to one of the epithets of Apollo,
who was sometimes called Apolloloxias, from
his intricate and ambiguous oracles. The
dies from which the cameo is stamped vary
with the size of the book, and the cameos
are mostly painted in green, silver and gold.
The Canevari books are fairly numerous and
very elaborate examples are to be found
amongst them. The oval stamp is often set
in the interlaced and flowered work found
on Aldine bindings, with the solid Venetian
tools. Our example is a copy of the " His-
toria Anglica "of Polydore Vergil, printed at
Basle in 1534, and now in the British Mu-
seum.
It must always seem a strange fact that
Italy, though the originator of artistic bind-
ings, had never any permanent school. To
her we owe both the introduction of gold
tooling into Europe and the inspiration in
ornament as applied to the decoration of
books that determined the designs used in
France for more than a century after and
264
EARLY ITALIAN BINDINGS
that filtered through France into England
for a still longer period. Nevertheless Italian
POLYDORI VERGILII ANGLICA HISTORIA. BASILED, 1534
binding ceased to exist after the first half
of the sixteenth century, and we must turn
to France to find it taking root and grow-
265
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
ing with a vitality that lasted for nearly
two centuries and a half. There then it
became established with the beginning of
the sixteenth century under the inspiration
of Italy and with the patronage of Kings and
Princes and the great scholars of the time.
With a guild for its protection it made the
most rapid progress towards perfection and
the acquisition of a native style, and it is in
the magnificent series of French royal bind-
ings that the best traditions of the art can
henceforth be most appropriately studied.
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-
MAKING
VIII
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
S|Sj
HE constant production of
designs for any special pur-
pose is apt to become a
matter of weariness as well
as of difficulty to those un-
able to rest satisfied in reiteration without
novelty, and the stereotyped repetition of
motives on more or less mechanical lines.
No doubt the effort to avoid working in
a groove belongs to the designer in any art,
even the highest, but must of necessity pur-
sue those most who are occupied with the
humbler arts, since these cannot, from their
restricted nature, give the artist as much
scope as the more important. Still, it is not
269
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
only a higher or lower position in the hier-
archy of the applied arts that determines the
limitations of ornament appropriate to each.
Jewelry, for example, though far removed in
its scope from, let us say, architectural decora-
tion, yet admits of almost endless diversity of
shape, color, and material. So likewise do fur-
niture, lace, and many another of the useful
PERSIAN TILE, I
arts. But some, like bookbinding, which forms
the text of these remarks, are limited in
special ways which the decorator is bound
to grasp at once, and with complete reali-
sation of their unalterable character. The
chronicle of the artistic side of bookbind-
ing is at the outset full of the attempt to
270
> 3 o > >>>*,>,
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (DOUBLURE)
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, iSjZ
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
get over the limitation of material. In
the early days, when books were scarce and
consequently of indefinite value, the pre-
cious metals, often in combination with
enamel and carved ivory, were devoted to
their adornment. In those days when books
were manuscripts on vellum, weight in
the covers was a desirable feature rather
than the reverse, and thus the affixing of
metal or other plaques to the thick wooden
boards was practicable and useful as well as
ornamental. Even after the multiplication
of books through printing, it was long be-
fore any restriction in the matter of mate-
rial for covers was recognised, and it was
not until the seventeenth century that the
almost universal adoption of some form of
leather superseded the employment of vel-
vet, silk, embroideries, pierced metal, tor-
toise shell, and the like. From time to time,
up to the present day, attempts have been
made to revive the old custom of coverings
other than leather or vellum, but the hard
usage entailed by frequent handling, com-
273
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
bined with the modern conditions of dirt
and the usual library conventions, have
shown all such efforts to be of an unpracti-
cal nature.
The limitations that more especially con-
cern us in this paper are not those of ma-
terial, but the even more unalterable ones
of size and shape. I say unalterable, be-
PERSIAN PLATE, 2
cause, to all intents and purposes, from the
designer's point of view, they are so. Books
may vary from 321110 to folio, they may be
relatively narrow or wide, but they are
always severely rectangular, and no attempts
to ignore this fact have ever been crowned
with success. Here again, as we review
successive chapters in the history of bind-
ing, we see the artist's various attempts to
174
THE POEMS OF SHELLEY. VALE PRESS, I9O]
THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE. VALE PRESS, 1 899
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
free himself from this particular limitation ;
we come upon designs that treat both sides V
and the back as the unit, so that when the
book is closed and on a table, the pattern
appears only in a fragmentary state ; we
see others that seem purposely to contro-
vert, so to speak, the boundary lines, as if
endeavouring to make of no avail the right
angles of the carefully squared boards ; and
with the latest fashion of eccentricity and v
affectation in things ornamental, we get
what may be called the Japanese applica-
tion of unconnected and generally natural-
istic detail or the fireworks made out of
peacocks' tails, curves and dashes — splutter-
ings of the unrestrained fancy and the un-
tutored hand.
I want to direct the attention of those
who undertake the designing of book cov-
ers to the boundless field that lies open in
the direction of Oriental art. It is nothing
new ; it has always been free to the worker
in every department through public mu-
seums and illustrated accounts of private col-
277
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
lections, but there seem few able or willing
to learn the lessons it offers, although Wil-
liam Morris has shown ably enough to the
present generation, what a mine of wealth
lies ready to him who can exploit it.
And first in importance comes that les-
PERSIAN TILE. 3
son of the East — so hard, apparently, of
comprehension by the Western mind — the
necessity for conventionalising natural forms.
It may be said of nearly all modern English
work, and of most French, that there is
little left of decorative value between the
extremes of arbitrary invention on the one
hand and unadulterated naturalism on the
other. Our schools of embroidery and
278
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
wood-carving, our sculptured and plastered
reliefs, our beaten metal and our painted pot-
tery, all vie with each other in giving the
most faithful transcript of nature. The ar-
tificiality of mind and manner that was a
feature of the eighteenth century in its litera-
ture, its art, and its society, gave place to a
PERSIAN TILE. 4
reaction, as it was bound to do, and "the
return to nature " is still working as a leaven
in all regions of the human mind. But L
it is time for realisation that in the industrial
arts the reproduction of naturalistic detail
is not of necessity ornament. To be so, it
must be transmuted by the process of intel-
ligent selection — so clumsily called conven-
tionalising— into what will bear application
279
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
and repetition in a given space and in a
given material that has its own special char-
acteristics.
Narcissus and snowdrops hammered on a
copper coal box do not glorify it as a re-
ceptacle of coals, nor does the wall-paper
covered with faithfully drawn and colored
clematis give even the allusion of reality,
much less the satisfaction of country visions,
far more effective in the mind's eye alone.
Just as it is no use to take any art out of
its legitimate sphere and demand of it what
it cannot give, so is it as purposeless to ask
the effect of nature from flower and fruit in
their application to ornament. Our French
neighbours have not grasped this truth in its
entirety, though they rarely represent nature
with the triviality so often to be found on our
common objects of every-day use. But even
Marius Michel, to whose efforts it is largely
due that modernTrench bindings have ceased
to be reproductions of the old, is too apt to
let his intimate acquaintance with natural
floral forms suffice for the adornment of
a8o
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
much of his fine work. This, too, is in
despite of his better judgment, for his book
on " The Ornamentation of Modern Bind-
ings" contains some admirable remarks on v
the importance of avoiding this pitfall to
those who go to the country for inspiration
in design. Many of the most attractive re-
cent French books are inlaid with that fine
instinct for the harmonious blending of
colours that is a national gift, but as regards
the point under discussion this very colour
sense more often than not presents an added
snare, and we find covers of exquisite work-
manship showing purple irises, climbing
clematis, and the like, which are most per-
fect copies in colour as well as drawing of
the growing plant.
Few things are more difficult than to de-
fine the precise nature of the treatment of
growing things which renders them fit ob-
jects for decoration, except, perhaps, to
teach how it is done. Possibly those whose
instinct is least likely to err would find it
most impossible of explanation. We will
281
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
endeavour to state the most important points
in connection with it, though a careful
study of the art of those nations that have
solved the problem most successfully will
be the surest way of attaining to a realisa-
tion of the essentials. In the first place,
\jthen, the servile imitation of natural growth
is to be strictly guarded against, for whilst
nature never makes two leaves or blossoms
alike, art, in consequence of the restriction
of its tools and material, must frankly ac-
cept repetition.
Furthermore, it is preferable to choose
the forms that are most salient_in^ feature
and simple in outline rather than those of
which the character is shown in the multi-
plicity or the delicacy of their detail. The
natural plant should be studied and both ac-
centuated and simplified in translation. The
rigid, unyielding lines of one may be em-
phasised, whilst another of climbing habit
may have its convolutions insisted on in the
curves of a flowing arabesque.
What can never be explained or taught
282
LES BALLADES DE VILLON. VALE PRESS, I9OO
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, 1 859
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
is just the unconscious effort by which the
true decorator turns the harvest of flower
and fruit that lies ready to his hand into
appropriate ornament without doing violence u
to the natural trend of leaf or blossom —
thus effecting the supreme idealisation of
the type-form.
Again, there must be a certain feeling
for the scale on which it is desirable to re-
produce particular plant-forms. It would be
inappropriate, for example, to give the
effect of excessive reduction of such as are
always large in their natural growth, or of
undue magnitude to those like violet and
snowdrop, that are lowly in their habit.
By such treatment they would inevitably
lose both character and significance.
Finally, it is necessary for decorative
convention that there should be a certain
symmetrical disposition of the material
chosen when once its essentials have been
grasped and its diversity of form simplified
to the artist's use, for only so can the eye
rest upon it with satisfaction. When one
285
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
looks at nature, there are no boundaries ex-
cept those set by the limits of the field of
vision, and they are not hard, but melt away
so that there is no consciousness of any out-
line or defining framework to the picture.
But it is far otherwise with most objects
PERSIAN TILE. 5
that offer scope for decoration, and espe-
cially with those of panel form. In bind-
ings one may almost say that the limitation
of the book is the first thing of which one
is aware. Decoration, therefore, should be
well contained within the natural boundary
lines of whatever it is applied to, and should
avoid both the opposite defects of being too
obvious or too involved. If it is the first, it
286
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
will probably be trivial ; if the second, the
mind will at once set to work upon it as on
a puzzle. ^Esthetic pleasure can be given v
by the simplest ornament or the humblest
object, but triviality is not simplicity ', and
without the element of dignity that be-
longs to real simplicity the pleasure will be
absent. Nor is it less important that the
mind should have a sense of rest, which it
can never get when the attention is absorbed
with the effort to unravel a complicated or
perhaps only ingeniously elaborated pattern.
If the main lines are clear and uninvolved,
a feeling of enjoyment is rapidly produced,
and the attendant detail may be disposed in
moderate intricacy without detracting from
the sense of satisfied repose.
We said before that the best way of un-
derstanding this necessary process of selec-
tion and adaptation in its application to
nature for purposes of art, lay in examining
the ornament of those countries which have
successfully solved the decorative problem.
In my opinion no nation succeeded so admi-
287
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
rably as Persia, and it was in the attempt to
turn the study of her art to account in the
matter of designs for bindings that these
notes originated.
Every country has achieved a triumph
in the employment of some one-plant form
for its ornamental uses. Egypt and Assyria
appropriated the lotus and the palm ; Greece
the acanthus, the vine, and the honeysuckle ;
China the aster and the peony; Japan the
almond blossom and chrysanthemum, and
so on. The genius of the Persians shows
itself over a wider field, but the pomegran-
ate and vine, the iris and pink, seem to
have been selected for most frequent treat-
ment.
The importance of Persian art to the de-
signer lies in several directions. First, in
the frank and free acceptance of the natural
limitations of form in the various objects
decorated. In weaving carpets, the straight
lines serve as inspiration for the border
and the panel ; in painting pottery, the
curves of the ewer and the bowl are made
288
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
to contribute their value to the ornament.
Nothing is more delightfully instructive than
to see the same detail applied under funda-
mentally different conditions. As an example
of this, the reader can look at the border of
a tile (Figure i) and the bottom of a plate
(Figure 2) which have the same motive
dexterously suited respectively to the square
and the curve ; and there is a like interest-
ing treatment of a climbing plant with
large leaf (Figures 3 and 6) frequently
found both in the tapestry and the pottery
of the country.
Secondly, the Persians ornamented arti-
cles of daily use and often of very little
value, and their taste for art was so wide-
spread that the designs were obviously made
then, as they are to this day, by the artisans
themselves, and not by artists in prepara-
tion for the ' workman. Their decoration
has, therefore, that infinite variety which is
only to be found under like circumstances.
Thirdly, there is the opportunity of see-
ing the same motive treated both natural-
289
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
istically as well as with the conventions nec-
essary for its adaptation to more rigid
schemes, and consequently of making a com-
parison in the same field of observation.
As examples of wholly admirable conven-
tion, it is not possible to find anything to
surpass the pomegranate (Figure 4) border
and the rose tile (Figure 5) here given, whilst
the natural rendering of iris and pink, of
bud and blossom, is seen in tile after tile,
illustrations of which we would fain give if
space permitted.
Lastly, with all the careful study of na-
tural growth and blossom, and an apprecia-
tion of their minutest details which one sees
in the more naturalistic designs, the Persians
were not afraid to let imagination, once
started by some common flower or accident
of growth, run riot on its own lines, so that
forms only remotely resembling flowers
came forth in profusion, nature merely
hinting to the workman the direction in
which to set his fancy free. Tile after tile,
again, is thus filled with flower-forms hav-
290
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
ing only the slightest connection with any-
garden plant, but excellent as ornament and
distributed over a limited space with con-
summate skill and the most satisfactory re-
sults.
In conclusion, I would suggest that the
binder of modern books, avoiding both the
*^ri
P^t
-
k/ fit . *
^.a£SF%
PERSIAN TILE. 6
old traditional lines of historic ornament,
except where such are specially appropriate,
and the too naturalistic ones so much in
vogue of late years, may vary his tools by
seeking a new fount of inspiration in the
happy achievements of Eastern decorative
art.
If it is objected that this is mere plagiar-
ism, and that what is wanted is the inven-
291
BOOKBINDERS AND THEIR CRAFT
tion of fresh matter, I would answer that
we must be honest and admit that there is
little absolutely new. Moreover, it often hap-
pens, that when there is an appearance of
novelty, the illusion is really due to our ig-
norance of what has been already done some-
where and somehow. At any rate, few can
imagine themselves creative artists, and it is
well to recognise that the next best thing,
and the only honest and possible thing for
the majority engaged in pattern-making, is
a fearless research in the wide field of the art
of different nations at different epochs. There
may follow free annexation of such ideas and
material as we find available for the scope of
our own efforts if — and this is a condition of
chief importance — such borrowed sources
of inspiration are translated into the terms of
our own temperament. In this way will the
adopted motives of decoration cease to be out
of place in their new environment ; they
will cease to appear as belonging exclusively
to the country of their inception, and by
force of application in a new sphere and as
292
SOME NOTES ON PATTERN-MAKING
instruments of a mind conscious of its own
aims, they will become what all tools and
material should become, a means of giving
effect to the personality of the workman.
These observations are the result of per-
sonal efforts on the lines indicated and the
plates that are printed herewith are given
in illustration of such attempts.
INDEX
INDEX
Aberdeen Press, 21.
Aldus, 103, 176, 213, 216.
Aldine bindings, 228-242.
Alyat, Alexandre, 185.
Andrews, Mr. W L., 46, 49.
Badier, Florimond, 74-76.
Ballagny, 69.
Bauchart, M. Quentin, 60.
Beraldi, M. H., 132, 145.
Bloc, Ludovicus, 179.
Bollcaert, Johannes, 179.
Bozerian, le Jeune, 55.
Bradel, cartonnage a la, 154.
Cable patterns, 220.
Cape, 127.
Cameo bindings, 256-264.
Canevari, Demetrio, 263.
Carayon, E., 154.
Caxton, 175, 192.
Chepman, Walter, 12.
Chepman, David, 20.
Charles VIII. , 65.
Charles IX., 65, 245, 250.
Chambolle, 114, 116, 123,
127.
Clement VII., 244.
Cracherode, Mr. C. M., 45.
Cuir bouilli, 187.
Cuzin, Francois, 119, 127.
David, 123, 127.
Derome, 37, 106.
Dibdin, 32.
Douce collection, 17.
Duff, Mr. E. Gordon, 171,
172, 190.
Dupuy, 76.
Durham bindings, 170.
Duru, 1 14, 127.
Egmondt, Frederic, 194, 195.
Elmsley, 46.
Englemann, 122.
Eves, The, 66, 74, 101, 103,
1 04.
Fletcher, Mr. W. Y., 76, 197,
262.
Fouquet, 76.
Frangois I., 244, 245.
Gavere, Joris de, 180.
German stamped leather, 187.
Giunta, Philippo de, 235.
Godfrey, 198.
Grolier Club, 49.
Grolier, Jean, 60, 240, 242-
250.
Gruel, Leon, 59, 74, 121, 150,
189.
Guild of Binders and Gilders, 6,
60.
Harleian collection, 33.
Hardy, 127.
Henri II., 65, 100, 127, 223,
245.
Henri III., 74.
Henry VII., 192.
Henry VIII., 192, 194.
297
INDEX
Hunte, Thomas, 193.
Huvin, J., 184.
Inlaid bindings, English, 8.
Jacobi, Henry, 196.
James IV., 12.
James V., 12.
Johnson, Dr., 34.
Joly, 123.
Motte, 123.
Moulin, Jehan, 17, 95, 184.
Myllar, Andrew, 12.
Netherlandish bindings, 92, 174,
183.
Nichols's Literary Anecdotes,
Norins, Jean, 183.
Notary, Julian, 196.
Kerver, Thielman, 196.
Koburger, Anthony, 19
Osborne, Thomas, 32.
Oxford Press, 193.
La Caille, 60.
Lawrin, Marc, 248, 250, 255.
Lecompte, Nicholas, 194.
Le Gascon, 74, 75, 76, 77, 103,
104, 106.
Leroux, de Lincy, M., 60.
Lewis, Charles, 55.
Librarii, 168.
Lienard, 123.
Loisetier, 123.
Lortic, Edmond, 118.
Lottie, Marcelin, 116.
Lottin, 60.
Louis XL, 64, 250.
Louis XII. , 65, 244.
Lyonnese bindings, 204-207.
Panel stamps, Netheilandish,
174, 181.
Panel stamps, French, 182, 186.
Panel stamps, English, 191-
198.
Payne, Roger, 29-56.
Payne, Tom, 34, 35.
Persian Art, 288.
Peres Mathurins, Church of, 66,
67.
Pigoreau, 69.
Pithou, 248.
Pote, 32.
Pudsey, Bishop, 91, 171.
Puy, Claude du, 248.
Pynson, 195.
Mace, R., 184.
Macarthy, Count, 37.
Magnier, 119.
Maioli, Tommaso, 248, 250.
Mathias, T. G., 34.
Mearne, Samuel, 42
Meivill, 21.
Mercier, Emile, 119.
Meunier, Charles, 146
Michel, Marius, 60, 115, 123.
Michel, Marius H., 126, 149,
280,
Moseley, Dr., ^8, 45, 49.
Raban, Edward, 21.
Raparlier, Romain, 152.
Reiss, 126.
Renaissance, Italian, 213.
Reynes, John, 196.
Richard J., 184.
Richard III., 192, 193.
Richenbach, John, 190.
Roce, Denis, 184.
Rood, Theodore, 193.
Rossigneux, 123.
Ruban, Petrus, 138.
Ry lands Library, 46.
.98
INDEX
Seguier, 76.
Singleton, Nicolas, 198.
Smeers, 119.
Spencer, Lord, 37, 45, 46.
Speryng, Nicholas, 197.
Stationarii, 167.
St. Andre-des - Arts, Church
of, 63, 64, 66.
Thibaron, 123, 127.
Thoinan, Ernest, 4, 59-77
Thou, Christophe de, 244, 248.
Thouvenin, 123
Tory, Geoffroy, 199-203, 248
Trautz- Bauzonnet, 114.
University of Paris, 63, 65, 68,
72.
Urban VIII., 263.
Venetian bindings, 2 1 6.
Vogel, Johannis, 19c.
Vulcanius, Martinus, 180.
Weale, Mr. H. James, 169,
189.
Weir, Richard, 37.
William, Bishop of Aberdeen,
14.
Worde, Wynken de, 193.
Wotton, Thomas, 256.
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